Maas v. Lucas

A proverb, much used in a part of England where estates do not long stay in one family, declares:

“The father buys, the son builds, the grandchild sells and his son begs.”

When the father buys, the father builds, the father sells and the children benefit well beyond that, which the father intended, a continued pressing of legal advantage must indeed sharpen the “serpent’s tooth” alluded to by King Lear. 1 The father, appellant here, bought and also built upon property, one-half interest in which he [and his former wife] had conveyed to his two children as tenants in common pursuant to a…