Try Your Hand - Ownership of Termination Interests in the Milne case
Question 1: Who held the termination interests at the time of the 1983 agreement in Milne? Consult the order of succession set forth in §304(c)(2). Recall that A.A. Milne died in 1956, leaving his widow, Dorothy de Selincourt, who died in 1971, and one son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was still alive in 1983. Clare Milne, Christopher Robin Milne’s only daughter, was born later in 1956 after A.A. Milne died, and was also still alive in 1983.
Answer: In 1983, Christopher Robin Milne owned the entire termination interest. Section 304(c)(2) specifies who gets to exercise an author's power of termination if the author has died. Sections 304(c)(2)(A) and 304(c)(2)(B) both provide that if the author's widow or widower is still alive, she or he gets one-half of the termination interest. However, we know in the Milne case that Milne's widow had died in 1951. Under §304(c)(2)(B), the next in line are the author's surviving children, and the surviving children of any dead child of the author. In other words, any surviving child would get a share of the termination interest; and so would any surviving grandchild, but only if that grandchild's father or mother (whichever parent is the child of the author) is already dead. In the Milne case, Christopher Robin Milne was A. A. Milne's only child, and because he was still alive in 1983, he would hold the termination interest. Clare Milne gets nothing because she was not a surviving child of a dead child of the author -- her father was still alive in 1983.
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