The Rule in Shelley's Case is abolished as a rule of law and as a rule of construction. If an applicable statute or a governing instrument calls for a future distribution to or creates a future interest in a designated individual's "heirs," "heirs at law," "next of kin," "relatives," or "family," or language of similar import, the property passes to those persons, including the state under chapter 11.08 RCW, that would succeed to the designated individual's estate under chapter 11.04 RCW. The property must pass to those persons as if the designated individual had died when the distribution or transfer of the future interest was to take effect in possession or enjoyment. For purposes of this section and RCW 11.12.185, the designated individual's surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner is deemed to be an heir, regardless of whether the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner has remarried or entered into a subsequent domestic partnership.
RCW 11.12.180
Rule in Shelley's Case abolished—Future distribution or interest to heirs.
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 79 Wash. 2d 849 - Burg v. Old National Bank (1971)
Most recently applied in Wilson v. Ray (July 1975)
2008 c 6 s 912; 1994 c 221 s 17; 1965 c 145 s 11.12.180
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.