PRECATORY WORDS

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PRECATORY WORDS

PRECATORY WORDS. Expressions in a will praying or requesting that a thing shall be done. 2. Although recommendatory words used by a testator, of themselves, seem to leave the devisee to act as he may deem proper, giving him a discretion, as when a testator gives an estate to a devisee, and adds that he hopes, recommends, has a confidence, wish or desire that the devisee shall do certain things for the benefit of another person; yet courts of equity have construed such precatory expressions as creating a trust. 18 Ves. 41; 8 Ves. 380; Bac. Ab. Legacies, B, Bouv. ed. 3. But this construction will not prevail when either the objects to be benefited are imperfectly described, or the amount of property to which the trust should attach, is not sufficiently defined. 1 Bro. C. C. 142; 1 Sim. 542, 556. See 2 Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 1070; Lewin on Trusts, 77; 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3953.

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