The Hebrew University Association v. Nye
Connecticut Superior Court
223 A.2d 397 (1966)
After the Connecticut Supreme Court rejected the trust theory in the same dispute over Ethel Yahuda's library, the case returned to the trial court to consider whether Ethel had instead made a valid inter vivos gift. In addition to her public luncheon announcement, press release, and repeated references to the library as belonging to Hebrew University (plaintiff), Ethel had given the University a memorandum itemizing the library materials to be donated, and had begun cataloguing and preparing them for shipment before her death in 1955, without ever completing physical delivery. The executors of her estate (defendants) again opposed the University's claim to the library.
Whether an inter vivos gift is valid despite the absence of manual delivery, when manual delivery was impracticable and the donor took other steps amounting to constructive delivery.