Wills are generally revocable because of the nature of a gift; But a will may be irrevocable if founded upon a valuable consideration

7 See statutes of the several states. 8 See subject of Conflict of Laws, Vol. XII, Subject 39. 9 A person who receives personal property under a will is called a legatee; one who receives real property, a devisee. 10 See statutes of the several states. 11 See subject of Trusts, Vol. VII, Subject 21. 12 Vol. XII, Subject 39.

"This rule of valuable consideration we find practically applied where one renders valuable services on the promise of a legacy. One who boards, nurses, cares for an aged or feeble person does so, in many instances, on the promise or expectation of a legacy, or it may be the whole surplus of the estate. Mere expectation cannot, in general, create an enforceable contract; but a mutual understanding may, if shown, afford the basis of a valid claim against the indebted person's estate. If the person rendering such a service was promised the legacy by the person he served, and the claim has legal merits and was more than the mere performance of some natural duty to another, the courts afford a practical means of its enforcement. For if the aged or feeble decedent makes no will, or makes a different will from what was agreed upon, or revokes a bequest which was founded upon his own promise, the claim may be presented for settlement to the whole or partial absorption of the estate, as the case may be. Probate or common law tribunals cannot set aside or ignore the will as an instrument, nor remodel or construct a will to meet the special compact of the parties; but treating the person disappointed of his legacy as a creditor of the estate, they apply a simple and available remedy. And, upon the same principle of a contract obligation on the decedent's part to leave his whole fortune to one who came and took care of him in his declining years, a collateral relative has been permitted to enforce specific performance in equity, so as to sweep in the entire estate over and above the debts, regardless of the dispositions which may happen to be made by the will in favor of others." 13

13 Schouler on Wills, Sec. 453.

Courts of equity have gone even further than this and specifically enforced agreements to leave property by will, which were founded upon a sufficient consideration.14

14 Walpole vs. Orford, 3 Ves., 402; Carmichael vs. Carmichael, 72 Mich., 72.