CY-PRES, (OF., as near). The prin ciple of English and American law whereby a testamentary gift which cannot take effect in the precise manner intended by the testator is given an effect as nearly as possible like that which was intended. The doctrine has been ap plied in two classes of eases.
In the Creation of Fcc-tail Estates.—It is an established rule of real property law that a gift of land by way of remainder to the issue of an unborn person is void if it follow a gift of a life estate in the same property by the same instru ment to such unborn person himself. But if the gifts be made by will, the remainder to the issue may be saved by construing the life estate of such unborn person as a fee tail, in which case it is capable of descending to the issue as tenant in tail. See FEE TAIL ; ESTATE.
In Charitable Gifts.—Where the object of a charitable gift fails, as by the dying out of the entire class of persons intended as beneficiaries of the charity, or where a charitable gift might be void in consequence of the indefiniteness of the charity or the operation of the rule against perpetuities. the court of chancery may direct the application of the property to another or to a specific charity. Thus, in' the first case, a tes tamentary gift for the emancipation of slaves in the United States might, after the abolition of slavery, be devoted under the cy-pres doctrine to the education of emancipated slaves: and. in the
second case, a charitable gift for the benefit of the American Zionist Society—there being no such society in existence and there being a possi bility that it may not come into existence within the period fixed by the rule against perpetuities —may be applied to the purposes which the tes tator had in mind. through the agency of any other society having similar aims and competent to make a beneficial disposition thereof.
It is in eases of charitable gifts that the ey pres doctrine finds most of its applications in the United States. It has been repudiated in several of the States. but in most of them it ex ists, and in New York, where it has for many years been in abeyance, it has recently been re vived by statute. It is generally considered a salutary doctrine, as tending to preserve to char ity a gift clearly intended for benevolent pur poses, and as effectuating the general intention of the testator, even though the particular inten tion entertained by him cannot be carried into effeet. Sec CHARITABLE TRUSTS; PERPETUITLES ; TRUST; INTERPRETATION; WILLS; and the au thorities there referred to under those titles.