The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia held that the common law doctrine of exoneration is in force in the state, finding that language directing the payment of the testator’s just debts requires the devisees of real property to receive unencumbered interests in the property. The terns of the devise which give the devisees all of the testator’s “right, title, and interest” in the subject real property did not change the result. Estate of Fussell v. Fortney, No. 11–0428, 2012 WL 2226450 (W. Va. June 12, 2012).
Special thanks to William LaPiana (Rita and Joseph Solomon Professor of Wills, Trusts, and Estates, New York Law School) for bringing this case to my attention.
