Can a judge alter a "specific" outdated request on a Will

[hotcoldhot]

Inspired by other threads on wills

Supposing someone thinks he’s gonna die and makes out a will. Then he lives and dies 40 years later and never changes his will.

So let’s say this guy your Uncle Bob, says “I leave $5,000 to my nephew Mike” to be used for tuition to fancy kindergarten “Yuppies R Kids”

Well Uncle Bob lived another 40 years and then dies, and Mike his nephew is now 44.

I do know people can put any conditon in a will, so long as it doesn’t run contrary to public policy or isn’t illegal. (Such as saying a wife can’t remarry or donating the money to a city to build a park that only white people can go to)

So what would happen to the money? Would Mike have a claim to the money, even though it’s obvious he can’t use it to go to kindergarten.

[Billdo]

Although it is generally used for gifts to charities, not to individuals, there is what is known as the cy pres doctrine, which provides that courts of equity (like probate courts) can reform a document when its purpose has become impractical.

For instance, if someone’s old will has a gift for the eradication of smallpox, a disease that has already been eradicated, the court would likely apply cy pres to award the gift to a charity working on some similar infectious disease. Perhaps more common is when the gift is for a particular charity or institution which has gone out of business. If there were a gift to a hospital that had closed, the court might award it to another hospital serving the same area.