## Facts

- James Patrick Hannan married Anna Zelinski in 1981 and executed a will during the marriage.
- The will made bequests to Zelinski and, in a simultaneous-death clause, a contingent gift to “those surviving immediate family members of my Wife.”
- Hannan and Zelinski separated, entered a property settlement agreement, and divorced in 2001.
- Hannan died in 2006 without remarrying and without revising the will.
- Zelinski’s immediate family members claimed the contingent gift; the estate’s personal representative asserted the divorce revoked those provisions under Md. Code, Estates & Trusts § 4-105(4).

## Issues

1. Whether Md. Code, Estates & Trusts § 4-105(4), revoking will provisions “relating to the spouse” upon divorce, applies only to gifts made directly to the former spouse.
2. Whether a contingent bequest to the “immediate family members” of the testator’s former spouse is a provision “relating to the spouse” and therefore revoked by divorce.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the judgment upholding revocation of the challenged bequests.
- The court held § 4-105(4) is not limited to provisions that name the former spouse as beneficiary; it may also revoke provisions benefiting the former spouse’s family members when the provision relates to the spouse.
- Applying the statute, the court concluded the contingent gift to the “surviving immediate family members of my Wife” related to the spouse and was revoked by operation of law upon divorce.

## Legal Principles

- Under Md. Code, Estates & Trusts § 4-105(4), divorce revokes will provisions “relating to the spouse,” which can extend beyond direct bequests to the former spouse.
- Whether a provision “relat[es] to the spouse” is determined from the will’s language and the circumstances surrounding its execution.
- A bequest to a spouse’s relatives may be treated as spouse-related when it is framed in terms of the marital relationship and appears derivative of that relationship.

## Conclusion

Maryland’s divorce-revocation statute can void not only gifts to a former spouse but also gifts to the former spouse’s relatives when the will’s terms and surrounding circumstances show the gifts were tied to the marital relationship; accordingly, the former spouse’s family members did not take under the will.


Friedman v. Hannan, 987 A.2d 60 (Md. 2010)