Chapter Five: The Three Most Romantic Words in Estates and Trusts
"Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze."
-Amanda Cross
"The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart."
-Unknown
On Wednesdays, from 2:30 to 3:20, Jake was in Estates and Trusts, taught by Professor Charles LaRusso, one of the most popular professors at Davis Law School. Professor LaRusso, a former Harvard Law School graduate, taught Property I and Property II, as well as Estates and Trusts. Students call him "C.L.R.," but not directly to his face, as he is a stickler with being called "Professor LaRusso" and nothing else. Other professors at Davis Law consider him one of the smartest professors when it was time to grade finals. Professor LaRusso always gave notoriously complex, amazingly fiendish, three-hour multiple choice exams. His Property I exam was legendary, rife with Rule Against Perpetuity questions that gave 1Ls headaches. Just mention "LaRusso" or "Property I" and you will inevitably hear groans, see wild-eye looks of fear, anhear "The exam...it was hell...not the exam". Even other professors had problems with these quesTtions.
What made Professor LaRusso a genius? It was a simple reason. His exams weealways Scantron. While other law school professors were slogging through hastily-written, illegible essay exams, Professor LaRusso handed over a stack of Scantron sheets to a secretary and two hours later, they were graded by the machine. All Professor LaRusso had to do was enter the grades into his computer and send it off to the Registrar office. He then could spend Winter Break or the summer with his family and do whatever he did for fun. Jake thought Professor LaRusso came up with Property-related jokes and collected funny stories for fun.
This Wednesday was no exception, but it was no ordinary Wednesday. It was Clarissa's birthday and Jake had a surprise in store, one that would occur during Estates and Trusts. Being the traditional romantic, Jake decided on giving her roses and something extra on her birthday. The only problem was when to deliver this gift to her. Being a prime example of an anal-retentive scheduler, a person who has to plan everything down to the last detail, he knew her schedule for her birthday down to the minute. Clarissa was involved with On-Campus Interviews for most of the morning, so everything until noon was out of the question. Her lunch hour was busy. The only time Clarissa was available was Estates and Trusts.
After visiting several local flower shops and checking their merchandise (a dozen long-stem red roses) for quality, he asked the shop owner if they delivered. Of course, being a store of high quality and one that put an emphasis on customer satisfaction, they did deliver, any place and any time. Jake told them when and where to deliver them. The shop owner complimented him on his taste and penchant for style. Then again, if you're paying a substantial sum of money for flowers and then gladly paying another large sum for extras, one automatically has good taste. Money has an odd way of making people look better. A person one would call toad-like automatically transforms into a handsome Prince Charming or a beautiful swan once one finds out they are rich. The most mundane dish, once given an exorbitant price tag, becomes a luxury. Take for example, the truffle. It's an ugly, lumpy fungus growing on rotten wood. Once you call it rare, hard to find, and claim it has an aroma and flavor not found on the planet Earth but in heaven, well, the lowly fungus becomes a priceless jewel. This might also be due to the French connection: things sound better in French. One could make the Brussel sprout, a much-maligned vegetable, sound like a romantic come-on in French. Nearly everything sounded good in French. Douglas Adams commented you rarely found a language that had the phrase "beautiful airport terminal," so some things just don't sound right in any language.
"So Jake, I heard you're taking Clairssa out to dinner tonight."
Jake turned around and he saw Melissa Trent. Standing next to her was Clarissa. He wondered why they were both there and he had a good idea. They wanted to know what Jake's surprise was. He confirmed his suspicion when Jessica Perez just happened to join this group. It was going to be tough.
Jake said, "Oh, hello Melissa. In fact, I'm talking her to La Rivera. I managed to get a window seat overlooking the river. It took a bit of wrangling to accomplish that feat. You probably heard that also."
Melissa and Jessica nodded in approval and commented on how nice that was. The usual excited chatter when a boyfriend does something romantic on a female's birthday instead of doing something "typically male" like forgetting her birthday, going out fishing, playing poker, or something of a similar nature. The worst thing a male could do is remembering the birthday and buying a present like tools or taking her out to a sports event like boxing or a football game. Fortunately for Clarissa, Jake was old-fashioned in certain respects when it came to females. For a girlfriend's birthday, one inevitably went out to dinner at a nice restaurant and one bought flowers, preferably roses. It was the natural thing to do.
Jake said, "It was nothing. After all, it's a special day for a special person."
Melissa commented, "Where did you find this person? He didn't act that way around me." She pouted and said, "Are you trying to say I'm not special?"
Jake carefully worded his answer. "You're special, but Clarissa is a different kind of special."
Jessica got to the chase, but in an indirect manner. "So, is there anything else you have planned?"
"I've got a dinner date with a beautiful girlfriend. What else should I plan?"
"Oh, I don't know." Jessica thought for a moment and said, "A surprise, perhaps?"
"A surprise? I've got something planned, but I'm not telling what it is. However, I'll tell you one thing about the surprise."
"Please do tell."
Jake whispered conspiratorially, "I shouldn't tell you this, but the surprise will happen today."
Professor LaRusso just happened to walk inside the classroom. He carried a manila folder, filled with copies, under his arm. While walking to the front of the class, he stopped and said, "Ms. Perez. Ms. Westwood. Ms. Trent. How are you all doing? Excuse me for sounding nosy, but I couldn't help but notice you are grouped around Mr. Lau's chair. What brings you here?"
Jake waved his hand to get Professor LaRusso's attention. "Um, they are trying to extract a secret from me. Today is Clarissa's birthday and I planned a little surprise. That's the secret."
"Ah, I think I see. By Clarissa, you are referring to Ms. Westwood. Well then, happy birthday." Professor LaRusso saw Jake's computer screen and saw the background. It was a picture of Jake and Clarissa. "Now I understand. You and Ms. Westwood, are, as my teenage son might say, have hooked up and are an item?"
"You could say that."
"I'll leave you all. A few words of advice, Mr. Lau. One, you can't keep a secret from a woman. Two, remember the most romantic words you can say to a women are fee simple absolute. Oh, Ms. Perez, Ms. Westwood and Ms. Trent, class is about to start. Maybe you should leave Mr. Lau alone and get to your seats."
Melissa and Jessica said, 'We'll find out."
Clarissa hugged him as kissing would be in bad form at this moment. Jake said, "You'll find out what my surprise is very soon. It would be safe to say everyone in this class will know."
Clarissa asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. You better get to your seat. Class is going to start soon."
Professor LaRusso said, "Today, we are going to talk about pour-over wills. And no, pour-over wills do not involve bad bartenders at one of the drinking establishments. A pour-over will is very simple in concept. The basic fact pattern is as follows. Let's say that the testator, the soon-to-be decedent, sets up a revocable inter vivos trust naming person P as a trustee. Some time later, T transfers to P, as trustee, his stocks and bonds. T should have donated his stocks and bonds to Davis Law School."
The class laughed. This was a standard LaRusso reference. He used this joke in his Property classes.
He continued his explanation on pour-over wills. "Now, T executes a will devising the residue of his estate to P, as a trustee, to hold under the terms of the inter vivos trust. The placement of probate assets into an inter vivos trust is called a hold-over, hence the term hold-over will. Excuse me, I have to take a breath."
Professor LaRusso paused and took a breath. "People have wondered if I ever breathed during lectures. I do, but you rarely notice. I have to plow through material. My doctor says I have a classic Type-A personality, whatever that means. In order to slow down, he tells me I should take a breath every so often."
Jake wondered what in the world that last statement meant. Professor LaRusso was an eccentric professor in his own respect. He wasn't an obviously eccentric person like Professor Pearson, but it was noticeable once you looked for it. He had what students at Davis Law called "LaRussoisms," particular phrases that he tended to use constantly in lectures. These included "game over," "fee simple absolute," and "ball of wax." Professor LaRusso had a peculiar way in saying "fee simple absolute." He would take obvious pleasure in distinctly and clearly pronouncing each word, separating each word with a dramatic pause, as if they were carved in stone like the Ten Commandments carried by Moses from the top of the holy mountain. Jake got a kick when Professor LaRusso said all three of the phrases in one sentence. It was, literally, a verbal festival. He was sure Professor LaRusso had an even greater thrill saying all three phrases at once and tried to accomplish this feat as often as possible.
"Now, why would anyone want to have a pour-over will?" This was a rhetorical queston, as he quickly answered this question. "There are two theories about the validity of pour-over wills. The first theory is incorporation by reference. The will can incorporate by reference a trust that existed when the will was executed, but it cannot incorporate trust amendments made after the will is executed. I hate to do this, but turn to page 273 for the relevant UPC statute, namely UPC 2-510. If the trust is amended after the will is executed, the probate assets will be disposed in accordance with the original terms of the trust or if it does not fit the intent of the testator, the assets will be passed by intestacy."
Professor LaRusso paused again. "Wow, I haven't breathed that much during a lecture, well, since never. I must be very calm at this moment. The second theory is the doctrine of independent significance. You don't have to look at the page reference, but if you do, you can see page 285 of this casebook. Under this doctrine, the trust instrument does not have to exist when the will is executed. The trust must have some assets in it before the time of the testator's death. For instance, let's say I have a will and in this will I have a reference to an inter vivos trust that disposes of assets transferred to the trust during life. As long as I have assets in this trust before I die, I have a valid case for the doctrine of independent significance. Note the difference. With incorporation by reference, the trust instrument must exist when the will is executed. With independent significance, the inter vivos trust must have some property transferred to it during life. Predictably, because of limitations and uncertainties of these doctrines, as well as lawyers making mistakes, most of them very embarrassing, there was a statute written for testamentary additions to trusts. It is currently UPC 2-511, which is on page 311."
Jake checked the time on his watch. It was 2:44, about one minute until the floral delivery person was supposed to arrive. Note the "supposed" to arrive. Delivery people not involved with mail delivery services like UPS weren't the most prompt of people. For some reason, they had a bad sense of time. Then again, maybe it was a good thing. They arrived safely with the product intact. Jake remembered the Domino's Pizza debacle with their "30 minutes or less" guarantee and the mutil-million dollar torts case they lost due to a reckless driver who wanted to arrive in "30 minutes or less" every single time, no matter the conditions. Delivery people invariably arrived late, generally fifteen or twenty minutes late. Even "prompt" delivery meant a few minutes late. At least they didn't have the Latin American and South American sense of time, where 6:00 PM meant something like 6:30 PM, and 7:00 PM, sometimes 7:30 PM. Of course, this was a cultural thing and they were making efforts to adopt a more corporate sense of time where 7:00 PM meant 7:00 PM and not something else. So, when compared to other things, it wasn't so bad that delivery people arrived a few minutes late.
-Amanda Cross
"The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart."
-Unknown
On Wednesdays, from 2:30 to 3:20, Jake was in Estates and Trusts, taught by Professor Charles LaRusso, one of the most popular professors at Davis Law School. Professor LaRusso, a former Harvard Law School graduate, taught Property I and Property II, as well as Estates and Trusts. Students call him "C.L.R.," but not directly to his face, as he is a stickler with being called "Professor LaRusso" and nothing else. Other professors at Davis Law consider him one of the smartest professors when it was time to grade finals. Professor LaRusso always gave notoriously complex, amazingly fiendish, three-hour multiple choice exams. His Property I exam was legendary, rife with Rule Against Perpetuity questions that gave 1Ls headaches. Just mention "LaRusso" or "Property I" and you will inevitably hear groans, see wild-eye looks of fear, anhear "The exam...it was hell...not the exam". Even other professors had problems with these quesTtions.
What made Professor LaRusso a genius? It was a simple reason. His exams weealways Scantron. While other law school professors were slogging through hastily-written, illegible essay exams, Professor LaRusso handed over a stack of Scantron sheets to a secretary and two hours later, they were graded by the machine. All Professor LaRusso had to do was enter the grades into his computer and send it off to the Registrar office. He then could spend Winter Break or the summer with his family and do whatever he did for fun. Jake thought Professor LaRusso came up with Property-related jokes and collected funny stories for fun.
This Wednesday was no exception, but it was no ordinary Wednesday. It was Clarissa's birthday and Jake had a surprise in store, one that would occur during Estates and Trusts. Being the traditional romantic, Jake decided on giving her roses and something extra on her birthday. The only problem was when to deliver this gift to her. Being a prime example of an anal-retentive scheduler, a person who has to plan everything down to the last detail, he knew her schedule for her birthday down to the minute. Clarissa was involved with On-Campus Interviews for most of the morning, so everything until noon was out of the question. Her lunch hour was busy. The only time Clarissa was available was Estates and Trusts.
After visiting several local flower shops and checking their merchandise (a dozen long-stem red roses) for quality, he asked the shop owner if they delivered. Of course, being a store of high quality and one that put an emphasis on customer satisfaction, they did deliver, any place and any time. Jake told them when and where to deliver them. The shop owner complimented him on his taste and penchant for style. Then again, if you're paying a substantial sum of money for flowers and then gladly paying another large sum for extras, one automatically has good taste. Money has an odd way of making people look better. A person one would call toad-like automatically transforms into a handsome Prince Charming or a beautiful swan once one finds out they are rich. The most mundane dish, once given an exorbitant price tag, becomes a luxury. Take for example, the truffle. It's an ugly, lumpy fungus growing on rotten wood. Once you call it rare, hard to find, and claim it has an aroma and flavor not found on the planet Earth but in heaven, well, the lowly fungus becomes a priceless jewel. This might also be due to the French connection: things sound better in French. One could make the Brussel sprout, a much-maligned vegetable, sound like a romantic come-on in French. Nearly everything sounded good in French. Douglas Adams commented you rarely found a language that had the phrase "beautiful airport terminal," so some things just don't sound right in any language.
"So Jake, I heard you're taking Clairssa out to dinner tonight."
Jake turned around and he saw Melissa Trent. Standing next to her was Clarissa. He wondered why they were both there and he had a good idea. They wanted to know what Jake's surprise was. He confirmed his suspicion when Jessica Perez just happened to join this group. It was going to be tough.
Jake said, "Oh, hello Melissa. In fact, I'm talking her to La Rivera. I managed to get a window seat overlooking the river. It took a bit of wrangling to accomplish that feat. You probably heard that also."
Melissa and Jessica nodded in approval and commented on how nice that was. The usual excited chatter when a boyfriend does something romantic on a female's birthday instead of doing something "typically male" like forgetting her birthday, going out fishing, playing poker, or something of a similar nature. The worst thing a male could do is remembering the birthday and buying a present like tools or taking her out to a sports event like boxing or a football game. Fortunately for Clarissa, Jake was old-fashioned in certain respects when it came to females. For a girlfriend's birthday, one inevitably went out to dinner at a nice restaurant and one bought flowers, preferably roses. It was the natural thing to do.
Jake said, "It was nothing. After all, it's a special day for a special person."
Melissa commented, "Where did you find this person? He didn't act that way around me." She pouted and said, "Are you trying to say I'm not special?"
Jake carefully worded his answer. "You're special, but Clarissa is a different kind of special."
Jessica got to the chase, but in an indirect manner. "So, is there anything else you have planned?"
"I've got a dinner date with a beautiful girlfriend. What else should I plan?"
"Oh, I don't know." Jessica thought for a moment and said, "A surprise, perhaps?"
"A surprise? I've got something planned, but I'm not telling what it is. However, I'll tell you one thing about the surprise."
"Please do tell."
Jake whispered conspiratorially, "I shouldn't tell you this, but the surprise will happen today."
Professor LaRusso just happened to walk inside the classroom. He carried a manila folder, filled with copies, under his arm. While walking to the front of the class, he stopped and said, "Ms. Perez. Ms. Westwood. Ms. Trent. How are you all doing? Excuse me for sounding nosy, but I couldn't help but notice you are grouped around Mr. Lau's chair. What brings you here?"
Jake waved his hand to get Professor LaRusso's attention. "Um, they are trying to extract a secret from me. Today is Clarissa's birthday and I planned a little surprise. That's the secret."
"Ah, I think I see. By Clarissa, you are referring to Ms. Westwood. Well then, happy birthday." Professor LaRusso saw Jake's computer screen and saw the background. It was a picture of Jake and Clarissa. "Now I understand. You and Ms. Westwood, are, as my teenage son might say, have hooked up and are an item?"
"You could say that."
"I'll leave you all. A few words of advice, Mr. Lau. One, you can't keep a secret from a woman. Two, remember the most romantic words you can say to a women are fee simple absolute. Oh, Ms. Perez, Ms. Westwood and Ms. Trent, class is about to start. Maybe you should leave Mr. Lau alone and get to your seats."
Melissa and Jessica said, 'We'll find out."
Clarissa hugged him as kissing would be in bad form at this moment. Jake said, "You'll find out what my surprise is very soon. It would be safe to say everyone in this class will know."
Clarissa asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. You better get to your seat. Class is going to start soon."
Professor LaRusso said, "Today, we are going to talk about pour-over wills. And no, pour-over wills do not involve bad bartenders at one of the drinking establishments. A pour-over will is very simple in concept. The basic fact pattern is as follows. Let's say that the testator, the soon-to-be decedent, sets up a revocable inter vivos trust naming person P as a trustee. Some time later, T transfers to P, as trustee, his stocks and bonds. T should have donated his stocks and bonds to Davis Law School."
The class laughed. This was a standard LaRusso reference. He used this joke in his Property classes.
He continued his explanation on pour-over wills. "Now, T executes a will devising the residue of his estate to P, as a trustee, to hold under the terms of the inter vivos trust. The placement of probate assets into an inter vivos trust is called a hold-over, hence the term hold-over will. Excuse me, I have to take a breath."
Professor LaRusso paused and took a breath. "People have wondered if I ever breathed during lectures. I do, but you rarely notice. I have to plow through material. My doctor says I have a classic Type-A personality, whatever that means. In order to slow down, he tells me I should take a breath every so often."
Jake wondered what in the world that last statement meant. Professor LaRusso was an eccentric professor in his own respect. He wasn't an obviously eccentric person like Professor Pearson, but it was noticeable once you looked for it. He had what students at Davis Law called "LaRussoisms," particular phrases that he tended to use constantly in lectures. These included "game over," "fee simple absolute," and "ball of wax." Professor LaRusso had a peculiar way in saying "fee simple absolute." He would take obvious pleasure in distinctly and clearly pronouncing each word, separating each word with a dramatic pause, as if they were carved in stone like the Ten Commandments carried by Moses from the top of the holy mountain. Jake got a kick when Professor LaRusso said all three of the phrases in one sentence. It was, literally, a verbal festival. He was sure Professor LaRusso had an even greater thrill saying all three phrases at once and tried to accomplish this feat as often as possible.
"Now, why would anyone want to have a pour-over will?" This was a rhetorical queston, as he quickly answered this question. "There are two theories about the validity of pour-over wills. The first theory is incorporation by reference. The will can incorporate by reference a trust that existed when the will was executed, but it cannot incorporate trust amendments made after the will is executed. I hate to do this, but turn to page 273 for the relevant UPC statute, namely UPC 2-510. If the trust is amended after the will is executed, the probate assets will be disposed in accordance with the original terms of the trust or if it does not fit the intent of the testator, the assets will be passed by intestacy."
Professor LaRusso paused again. "Wow, I haven't breathed that much during a lecture, well, since never. I must be very calm at this moment. The second theory is the doctrine of independent significance. You don't have to look at the page reference, but if you do, you can see page 285 of this casebook. Under this doctrine, the trust instrument does not have to exist when the will is executed. The trust must have some assets in it before the time of the testator's death. For instance, let's say I have a will and in this will I have a reference to an inter vivos trust that disposes of assets transferred to the trust during life. As long as I have assets in this trust before I die, I have a valid case for the doctrine of independent significance. Note the difference. With incorporation by reference, the trust instrument must exist when the will is executed. With independent significance, the inter vivos trust must have some property transferred to it during life. Predictably, because of limitations and uncertainties of these doctrines, as well as lawyers making mistakes, most of them very embarrassing, there was a statute written for testamentary additions to trusts. It is currently UPC 2-511, which is on page 311."
Jake checked the time on his watch. It was 2:44, about one minute until the floral delivery person was supposed to arrive. Note the "supposed" to arrive. Delivery people not involved with mail delivery services like UPS weren't the most prompt of people. For some reason, they had a bad sense of time. Then again, maybe it was a good thing. They arrived safely with the product intact. Jake remembered the Domino's Pizza debacle with their "30 minutes or less" guarantee and the mutil-million dollar torts case they lost due to a reckless driver who wanted to arrive in "30 minutes or less" every single time, no matter the conditions. Delivery people invariably arrived late, generally fifteen or twenty minutes late. Even "prompt" delivery meant a few minutes late. At least they didn't have the Latin American and South American sense of time, where 6:00 PM meant something like 6:30 PM, and 7:00 PM, sometimes 7:30 PM. Of course, this was a cultural thing and they were making efforts to adopt a more corporate sense of time where 7:00 PM meant 7:00 PM and not something else. So, when compared to other things, it wasn't so bad that delivery people arrived a few minutes late.
posted by J.U. at 11/10/2005 05:42:00 AM
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