Gift (law)

“ If a husband should give any property to his wife, he must describe it in a written instrument and affix his signature or seal thereto. And, in order that his gift may be valid, it is necessary that two or three freeborn witnesses should attest the document. This law shall also apply to a wife who wishes to confer any gift upon her husband, provided the gift was not extorted by the husband through violence; to the end that the provisions of the law relating to the disposition of property may be, in every respect, preserved. ”

“ If there is an actual or constructive delivery of the property, the gift is good, notwithstanding the law of wills. The gift, however, must be absolute and the giver must die of that sickness.
“In making provision for children in wills, the corpus or principal fund is not infrequently to be turned over to them on arriving at legal age. According to my observation, the age of thirty is much preferable. It is not possible for any young man or woman at the end of minority to be possessed of much wisdom with reference to the care of property. ”

“ The representative of the donor was manifestly bound by the donor's valid acts, and could assert no right superior to his. His right to make the gift was the right to dispose of his own property, and whether, as between him and his donee, the equitable title passed, was a question of general or local law. ”

“ If the father-in-law has not returned the bride-price, the husband shall deduct the amount of her bride-price from her marriage-portion, and shall return her marriage-portion to her father's house.
Effect upon the inheritance of a father's gift to a favorite son § 165. If a man has presented field, garden, or house to his son, the first in his eyes, and has written him a deed of gift; after the father has gone to his fate, when the brothers share, he shall keep the present his father gave him, and over and above shall share equally with them in the goods of his father's estate. ”

“ Thus, by the common law, a gift of property to several in common, and when either of them dies a gift of his share to the survivors, does not subject that share to further survivorship unless it is so expressly provided. ”

“ Trust—Imperfect Gift.—A father, desiring to make his daughter a present, bought $2,000 worth of bonds, but, at her request, kept them himself and remitted the interest to her. On his death, held — She cannot recover from the administrators. A gift is not complete without delivery of the res, and the Court will not make a valid trust out of an imperfect gift. ”

“ Here again it must be borne in mind that only gifts of a transitory description (such as meat or the biaya and other money presents) become the property of the woman, while in regard to personal ornaments she can only regard as her own what she receives on the 7th day after her marriage [158] , and the present made in token of the loss of her virginity [159] .
On the feast-days the husband also receives a return present from his wife, the first time a suit of clothes, which he proceeds forthwith to don; in later years his parents-in-law present him with a dollar or so by way of feast-gift. ”

“ To control the rightful owner's liberty of gift, by creating in the children a legal right superior to it, is to postpone a real claim to an imaginary one. To this great and paramount objection to the law, numerous secondary ones may be added. ”

“ Kirstein Holding Co. v. Bangor Veritas, Inc., 131 Me. 421, 424, 163 A. 655. A precise analogy is found in the law of gifts and legacies. Acceptance is presumed, but rejection leaves the title by relation as if the gift had not been made. ”

“ Petitioner argues that since there were no donees in existence on the date of the creation of the trust who could accept the remainders, the transfers cannot be completed gifts. The gift tax law itself has no such qualifications. It imposes a tax 'upon the transfer * * * of property by gift.' And Treasury Regulation 79, Art. ”

“ Gifts come from a region outside claims, outside rational justification. They are the expression of arbitrary will. I give because I want to, and the other knows he has no right beyond my inclination to what he is receiving. Were there legitimate grounds for my pretended gift it would be merely the payment of a debt and would afford no such pleasure as does the over-and-above of a gift. A clerk may have satisfaction in his salary, but his feeling on receiving his employer’s gift is something altogether different. ”

“ If A delivers a chattel to B, saying or signifying that he does so by way of gift, the property passes, and the chattel belongs to B. But unless the actual thing is bodily handed over to the donee, the mere verbal expression of the donor’s desire or intention has no legal effect whatever. ”

“ But for present purposes it is of more importance that in common understanding and in the common use of language a gift is made to him upon whom the donor bestows the benefit of his donation. One does not speak of making a gift to a trust rather than to his children who are its beneficiaries. The reports of the committees of Congress used words in their natural sense and in the sense in which we must take it they were intended to be used in § 504 (b) when, in discussing § 501, they spoke of the beneficiary of a gift upon trust as the person to whom the gift is made. ”

“ I have no legal, constitutional right, of course, to demand a person's gratitude for any gift which is purely voluntary on my part. Lots of people in all probability would infinitely rather not have a gift than be obliged thereby to write a 'Thank you' for it. Against such a person's wish and inclination, I mean, I've no right to pry 'Thank you's' out of him, even with gold-mounted golf sticks or first editions. I've no right to be a highwayman, I mean. ”

“ On the other hand, every man making a gift knows that what he gives away today will not be included in his estate when he dies. All such gifts plainly are not made in contemplation of death in the statutory sense. Many gifts, even to those who are the natural and appropriate objects of the donor's bounty, are motivated by 'purposes associated with life, rather than with the distribution of property in anticipation of death.' United States v. ”

“ Thus, cases are cited of charities, which are free gifts of property, dedicated on the face of the instrument itself, which made the gift to a special use,-free gifts, in which the donor had been induced to make them by no pecuniary interest, but which proceeded solely from his disinterested bounty and charity.
But these reservations were not free gifts. They were sales founded on a most valuable consideration, in which the vendor had most important pecuniary interest at stake; and this consideration was of a twofold character. 1. ”

“ Systematic benevolence applied to our Heavenly Father. The whole system of our teaching on this subject has been based on “Giving,” everlastingly “Giving.” If this teaching is right we laymen can justly claim the right to give what we please and as we please. Gifts and payment occupy very different standpoints. If I owe a debt, it is a definite amount and I must pay it when it is due, or be branded as a defaulter, but no man owes a gift. ”

“ If he who received the gift should die during the life of the donor, he shall have the right to dispose of said gift at his pleasure; and should he die intestate, the gift shall not revert to the donor, but shall descend to the heirs of him who received it. ”

“ Let us give to those who need, neither asking nor expecting return, not even asking gratitude, only asking that the gift shall make the receiver happy—and he who gives in that way increases his own joy.
We have no right to enslave our children. We have no right to bequeath chains and manacles to our heirs. ”

“ If the husband should acquire any property, either from strangers, or during any public expedition, or by the donation of the king, or of a patron, or of any of his friends, his children or his heirs shall have a right to claim it, and shall have absolute power to dispose of it as they wish. The same rule shall apply to women who have received gifts from any source. ”

“ When an article is presented to you for a specified purpose, it is your duty to use it for that purpose, and for no other, according to the wish of the donor. It is mean and dishonourable to give away a present; at least without first obtaining permission from the original giver. You have no right to be liberal or generous at the expense of another, or to accept a gift with 175a secret determination to bestow it yourself on somebody else. If it is an article that you do not want, that you possess already, or that you cannot use for yourself, it is best to say so candidly, at once ”

“ If any person accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain from any person, for himself or for any other person, or for any purpose, any gift, money or valuable consideration as an inducement or reward for procuring or assisting or endeavouring to procure the grant of a dignity or title of honour to any person, or otherwise in connection with such a grant, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. ”

“ Under the act of 1869, therefore, the power of a married woman to convey, devise, and bequeath her property does not extend to such as she acquired by gift or conveyance from her husband, while under § 728 it extends to all her property, however derived. ”

“ R. Co. L. R. 2 Q. B. Div. 1. There is the further consideration whether the gift created a public charity, as contended by the plaintiff in error, and if so, or, whatever the nature of the trust, whether there is such a failure of the donee as to invalidate the gift and to destroy the legal title of the defendant, if otherwise good. ”

“ Generally a gift is the antithesis of such production or collection because it reduces the donor's resources whether income producing or not. However, petitioner suggests that although he stated in his gift tax return that the purpose of his gifts was to express his love for the donees, yet the gifts were part of a general plan to produce income for himself. ”

“ It is entirely proper both to give and receive them, unless there is an improper motive connected with either gift or reception. If they are extorted by any kind of pressure or promise, express or implied, direct or indirect, in the way of favor or immunity, then the giving or receiving becomes not only improper but criminal. ”

“ All the other articles that are of their own nature of promiscuous and common use, either to men or women, are not paraphernal, but fall under the communion of goods, unless they become peculiar and paraphernal by the gift and appropriation of the husband to her, such as a marriage-watch, rings, jewels, and medals. ”

“ A gift like that, replied I, will be attended by momentous conditions. I cannot decide upon its value, until I know these conditions.
The sole condition is your consent to receive them. Not even the airy obligation of gratitude will be created by acceptance. On the contrary, by accepting them, you will confer the highest benefit upon another.
I do not comprehend you. Something surely must be given in return.
Nothing. It may seem strange that, in accepting the absolute controul of so much property, you subject yourself to no conditions; that no claims of gratitude or service will accrue ”

“ Again, the crucial thing is postponement of enjoyment, not the fact that the beneficiary is specified and in esse or that the amount of the gift is definite and certain. [13]
The considerations, which petitioners advance to support their position, from the minority of the beneficiaries and their consequent legal disability to manage and control their property are intermingled with others relating to the motives of the donors in making the gifts. It is said that their purpose was to provide for the 'comfort, support, maintenance and welfare,' including education, of the grandchildren ”

“ Now, dear ones, I want you to think how a gift can alone fulfil the giver’s object in bestowing it. It must be willingly and gratefully accepted, valued, and used in accordance with the intentions of the giver.
Even gifts are often received without being welcome, and for various reasons. We may fear to cause pain by refusing them, or we may be afraid of future loss if we do so. We may dislike the idea of being indebted to the person who offers the gift. ”

“ The donor of property which would otherwise be subject to heavy taxes at his death does not usually disclose his purpose in making the gift, even if he does not conceal it. He may not, and often does not, analyze his motives or determine for himself whether his dominating purpose is to substitute the gift for a testamentary disposition which would subject it to the tax, see Milliken v. ”

“ Complete ownership of the gift, together with all its incidents, has passed during the life of both donor and donee, and no interest of any kind remains to pass to one or cease in the other in consequence of the death which happens afterward.
The phrase 'in contemplation of or intended to take effect * * * at or after his death,' found in the provisions of section 302 (c) of the act of 1926 and prior acts, as applied to fully executed gifts inter vivos, puts them in the same category for purpose of taxation with gifts causa mortis. ”

“ One article conceded to his future bride, in consideration of the marriage, a gift of one hundred thousand francs; not, as is customary and almost fashionable in such cases, a gift on the condition of her surviving the giver, but an immediate settlement, resembling a transfer of property. This abnormal generosity was the proof of his feebleness, the lamentable testimony to his defeat. ”