In re the Estate of Bogart

Nathan R. Sobel, S.

This construction proceeding raises what has become the most frequently recurring issue in the law of future estates: whether a remainderman whose right to possession is postponed to let in an intervening life estate must survive the life beneficiary in order to take the principal of the fund.

A recent decision of this court dealt with a named remainder-man (Matter of Young, 62 Misc 2d 86). In this case the gift of the remainder is to a class.

Unhappily, testators (or their draftsmen) do not make their intention clear. The primary fault is the failure to express whether a…