Thursday, October 22, 2009

White v Brown- (Supreme Court of Tennessee, 1977)

Han Solo devised a holographic will (which in legal terms means a will written and signed exclusively by the will-writer, but in this case also means an actual hologram) leaving the Millennium Falcon to Chewbacca "to fly in." His will also contained the phrase, "the ship is not to be sold."

After Han died and Chewbacca picked up the Falcon, his wife, Leia Solo, claimed that the ship only belonged to Chewbacca until his death, upon which Han and Leia's children would inherit the Falcon. She based her claim on the phrases in Han's will which limited Chewbacca's rights to the ship, stating that it was her husband's intent that after Chewbacca died, the ship would automatically revert back to the Solo family (This theory is called a Life Estate).

Chewbacca then brought suit against Leia, stating that regardless of the terms of the will, Han intended to give him the ship outright, to be passed on to Chewbacca's heirs after his death (This is known as a Fee Simple Absolute). He believed that the clauses in the will limiting his rights were unlawful and the result of Han writing the will himself, without legal assistance.
The council, citing New Republic law, decided that the prevailing law favored the intent of the will-writer in cases of holographic wills, and that, when intent could not be determined, such wills should be read as assigning Fee Simple titles, rather than Life Estate titles, unless a contrary intent is expressed in either the words or the context of the will.

The council found that, despite Han's phrasing, it was impossible to determine whether he meant to give the Falcon as a Life Estate or as a Fee Simple Absolute. They also found that the phrases limiting Chewbacca's rights to the ship were not strong enough to overcome the law's preference for passing Fee Simple titles, and therefore were unlawful limitations. The council awarded the ship in Fee Simple Absolute to Chewbacca, and voided the parts of Han's will restricting his rights to use the Millennium Falcon as he saw fit.

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