Baarslag v. Hawkins

This case presents the first appellate review in this jurisdiction directed to the applicability of the wills doctrine known as incorporation by reference. The context of our review is a testator’s unsuccessful attempt to create a charitable trust.

Hendrik S. Baarslag, Sr., died on March 2, 1972, leaving a will dated August 16, 1968. In the fourth paragraph of this will, 2 the testator gave “the bulk of my property” to seven named “devisees-trustees” in an “unlimited trust” to be used “for certain purposes which are dear to my heart, and which are known to my Executor and the devisees-trustees…