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Article

Abstract

Purcell v. Cleveland Trust Co., 200 N.E.2d 602, 28 Ohio Op. 2d 262 (P. Ct. 1964). Approximately three years before her death in 1960, plaintiff's wife created an amendable and revocable inter vivos trust, naming defendant as trustee. The formally drawn instrument provided for pour-over from her simultaneously executed will, however, a specific bequest to the trust was apparently never made. After his wife's death, plaintiff, choosing to exercise his statutory prerogative of taking against his wife's will: demanded that defendant trustee pay over to h i from the corpus of the inter vivos trust the one-half share which he claimed was due him under Ohio law. Upon the trustee's refusal to accede, plaintiff brought an action in the Probate Court of Cuyahoga County asking for a declaratory judgment establishing his right to receive a distributive share from the trust corpus. The court sustained the right of plaintiff to one-half of the fund by virtue of his election to take against the will.

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