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In summary, Patricia Low was issued agency stock at the
beginning of the transaction, not after all the payments had been
made. Only physical possession of the stock certificate was
denied to her, a common security technique when dealing with the
sale of commercial paper. Decedent's threatened remedy to deal
with a default was to divest her daughter of ownership of the
stock.
We hold that the most probable construction of decedent's
will is that she wanted her daughter to have the stock upon
decedent's death, but to be divested of it should her daughter
fail to make the payments, a condition subsequent. "Where there
is a prolonged period of time prescribed by the words of the
bequest for its performance, it has been held to create a
condition subsequent." Tizard v. Eldredge, 25 N.J. Super. at
481, 96 A.2d at 691.
B. Marital Deduction Issue
1. Law
Section 2056(a) allows a marital deduction from the value of
the adjusted gross estate in "an amount equal to the value of any
interest in property which passes or has passed from the decedent
to his surviving spouse, but only to the extent that such
interest is included in determining the value of the gross
estate." To obtain the marital deduction, an executor must
establish (1) that the decedent was survived by his or her
spouse; (2) that the property interest passed from the decedent
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