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Precatory

Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Black's Law Dictionary

Having the nature of prayer, request or entreaty; conveying or embodying a recommendation or advice or the expression of a wish, but not a positive command or direction.

Precatory trust. A trust created by certain words, which are more like words of entreaty and permission than of command or certainty. Examples of such words, which the courts have held sufficient to constitute a trust, are "wish and request," "have fullest confidence," "heartily beseech," and the like. Ra palj'e & Lawrence. See Hunt v. Hunt, 18 Wash. 14, 50 Pac. 578; Bohon v. Barrett, 79 Ky. 378; Aldrich v. Aldrich, 172 Mass. 101, 5l N. E. 449.

Precatory words. Words of entreaty, request, desire, wish, or recommendation, employed in wills, as distinguished from direct and imperative terms, 1 Williams, Bx'rs, 88, 89, and note. And see Pratt V. Miller, 23 Neb. 496, 37 N. W. 263; Pratt v. Pratt Hospital, 88 Md. 610, 42 Atl. 51.