Del. C. » Title 12 — Administration of Decedents’ Estates · CHAPTER 23. Accounting and Distribution · Decedents’ Estates and Fiduciary Relations
Delaware Code

12 Del. C. § 2313 (2026)

Anti-lapse; deceased devisee; class gifts

✓ current as of May 2026
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(a) (1) If a devisee or legatee who is a grandparent or lineal descendant of a grandparent of the testator is dead at the time of the execution of the will, fails to survive the testator or is treated as if the devisee or legatee predeceased the testator, the issue of the deceased devisee or legatee who survived the testator by 120 hours take in place of the deceased devisee or legatee, per stirpes.

(2) One who would have been a devisee or legatee under a class gift if that person had survived the testator is treated as a devisee or legatee for purposes of this section whether death occurred before or after the execution of the will.

(b) This section shall not apply in the case of wills wherein provisions have been made for distribution of property different from this section.

36 Del. Laws, c. 259, §  1;  Code 1935, §  3854;  12 Del. C. 1953, §  2313;  59 Del. Laws, c. 384, §  1;  70 Del Laws, c. 186,, §  1; 
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1954–1955 · leading case: MacLary v. Pleasant Hills, 109 A.2d 830 (Del. Ch. 1954).
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MacLary v. Pleasant Hills, 109 A.2d 830 (Del. Ch. 1954). “On December 23, 1941, the defendants' mother — the plaintiffs' grandmother — died and by virtue of the Anti-Lapse Statute, 12 Del.C. § 2313, plaintiffs became equitably entitled to a portion of her stock.”
Smith v. Truitt, 115 A.2d 707 (Del. Ch. 1955). “This statute, 12 Del.C. § 2313, insofar as applicable provides: "No devise or legacy in favor of a brother, sister or children of a brother or sister of any testator dying after March 15, 1909, such testator not leaving a lineal descendant, shall lapse or become void by reason…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.