Lapse in Europe

Definition of Lapse

As a general rule, when a person to whom property has been devised or bequeathed dies before the testator, the devise or bequest fails or lapses, and the property falls into residue. But if land is given to a person in tail who dies before the testator, leaving issue capable of taking under the entail, the land goes as if the devisee had died immediately after the testator. (Wills Act, 1837, s. 32.) And if a testator bequeaths (or devises) property to a child or other descendant of himself, and such descendant dies leaving issue who survive the testator, the legacy (or devise) does not lapse but takes effect as if the person to whom the gift was made had died immediately after the testator (ibid, section 33). But this rule does not apply if land is devised to children as joint tenants, or to children as a class, or to children by reason of a special power of appointment. Also a lapsed share of residue does not fall into residue, but devolves as upon an intestacy. See Finer v. Francis

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Definition of Lapse is, temporally, from A Concise Law Dictionary (1927). This page needs to be proofread.

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