Lapse - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition lapse

Definition :

Lapse [fr. lapsus, Lat.], error; failing in duty.

(1) A benefice is said to lapse when the patron does not exercise the right of presentation within six calendar months (182 days) after the avoidance of the benefice, exclusive of the day of the avoidance. In such case there is a devolution of the rights of patronage from a neglectful patron to the bishop as ordinary, to the metropolitan an superior, and to the sovereign as patron paramount of all the benefices in the realm.

(2) A device or legacy is said to lapse when the devisee or legatee dies before the testator. In such case the devise or legacy falls into the residuary real or personal estate, as the case may be. If a residuary devise or bequest lapses, the property falls into the intestate estate of the testator, see Easum v. Appleford, (1840) 5 My&Cr 56; Re Whitrod, (1926) 1 Ch 118. If, however, the devisee or legatee should be a child or other issue of the testator, and should die leaving issue surviving at the testator's death, then, by s. 33 of the Wills Act, 1837 (7 Wm. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 26), the devise or bequest does not lapse, but takes effect as if the devisee or legatee had died immediately after the testator; and see s. 32 of the same Act as to a devise for an estate-tail. Extended to personalty settled in tail under s. 130 of the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925. For the case of a devise of freehold land to an infant dying after 1925, unmarried, after the testator's death, see Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 51(3). It is also a general rule that a trust legacy does not lapse by the death of the trustee in the testator's lifetime the legacy survives for the benefit of the beneficiary. Consult Jarman or Theobald on Wills; Roper on Legacies.