Restatement (Third) of Property and Class Gifts

Lawrence W. Waggoner (Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law, University of Michigan) has recently published his article entitled Class Gifts under the Restatement (Third) of Property, 33 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 993 (2007).

Here is the conclusion to his article:

The new Restatement (Third) of Property is an important resource for both lawyers and judges. The first two published volumes are beginning to influence the development of American law on a variety of fronts. The soon-to-be-published third volume, covering class gifts and powers of appointment, could prove to be equally influential.

The material on class gifts addresses not only traditional topics, such as what is a class gift and questions of increase and decrease in class membership, but the cutting edge issues concerning the status for class gift purposes of children of assisted reproduction, as well as adopted children and nonmarital children. The new Restatement promulgates nuanced rules of construction on all of these matters. As such, they are ripe for adoption not only in case law, which constitutes a Restatement’s natural sphere of influence, but also in the definitions section of private donative documents and in legislation.