Estates in Land and Life Estates

Question 1

What are the instrumental ends of estates?

Answer 1

Land can be easily transferred, leads to alienability, system is governed by lawyers

Question 2

Words of purchase

Answer 2

words grantor uses to designate the grantee (“To A”)

Question 3

Words of Limitation

Answer 3

Describes the extent/quality/duration of the estate the grantee acquires (“and her heirs”, “for life”)

Question 4

Livery of Seisen

Answer 4

Act of turning over possession before witnesses with a symbolic act (handing over clod of dirt)

Question 5

Waste

Answer 5

A use of property in a manner that unreasonably interferes with the expectation of person B; designed to avoid uses of property that fail to maximize the property’s value

Question 6

What are the three kinds of waste?

Answer 6

Affirmative Waste – liability results from intentional injurious acts that have more than trivial effect

Permissive Waste – negligence, failure to reasonably care for property

Ameliorative Waste – uses by tenant that increase rather than decrease value of land (irrelevant)

Question 7

What happens if there are no vested remaindermen alive to take?

Answer 7

“Remainder to B and her heirs” and no heirs take, escheats to the state

Question 8

Intestate

Answer 8

Dies without will

Question 9

Heirs

Answer 9

Survivors of decedent designated under statute

Question 10

What is the order of inheritance if T dies intestate?

Answer 10

Heirs (spouse)
Issue (Children)
Ancestors (Parents)
Collaterals (Siblings)
Escheats

Question 11

What is the conveyance for a fee simple at common law and today?

Answer 11

To A and her heirs - CL
To A - Mod

Question 12

What are the three kinds of fee simple subject to an executory interest?

Answer 12

• To A, then to B after 20 years
• To A so as long as premises are used for school purposes, then to B
• To A, but if it ceases to use the land for school purposes, B may take

Question 13

What is a defeasible fee and what are the two subcategories?

Answer 13

Estate will terminate, prior to natural end point, on the occurrence of a future event

Fee Simple Determinable (FSD): Estate will terminate automatically when stated event happens
- “So long as…”
- “while used for…”
- “during the continuance of…”
- “until…”

Fee Simple Subject to Condition Subsequent (FSSCD): Estate will not terminate automatically, but may be cut short or divested at transferor’s election
- “but if…”
- “provided however, that when…”
- “on condition that if…”

Question 14

What is a right of entry?

Answer 14

Future interest retained by the transferor, O when the present possessory interest is a fee simple subject to condition subsequent

Can be express or implied from the language of the instrument

Question 15

What is a possibility of reverter?

Answer 15

The future possessory interest in O when A’s present possessory interest is a fee simple determinable

Question 16

What are the possessory estate interests that at CL are not alienable?

Answer 16

Possibility of reverter, right of entry, contingent remainder

Question 17

What happens if a life estate is transferred inter vivos?

Answer 17

It becomes a life estate pur autre vie

Question 18

Which estate is not devisable (in the will) or descendable?

Answer 18

Life estates

Question 19

What is a reversion?

Answer 19

Land will revert back to O at A’s death if A is life tenant; if O dies during A’s life, O’s reversion passes under his will or to his heirs

Question 20

What are the two requirements for a contingent remainder?

Answer 20

Given to an unascertained person OR made contingent subject to condition precedent

Question 21

What is an example of an unascertained contingent remainder?

Answer 21

To A for life, then to the heirs of B (B is alive)

Question 22

What is an example of an contingent remainder created by a condition precedent?

Answer 22

To A for life, then to B and her heirs if B survives A

Question 23

What is the format for an alternate contingent remainder?

Answer 23

If X happens A gets the property but if X does not happen, B gets the property

Question 24

What are the requirements for a vested remainder?

Answer 24

Given to an ascertained person (not a living person’s heirs) AND

Not subject to a condition precedent

Question 25

What are the three kinds of vested remainders?

Answer 25

Indefeasibly vested, vested subject to divestment, vested subject to open

Question 26

What is an indefeasibly vested remainder?

Answer 26

Certain to become possessory in the future and cannot be divested
Ex. “To A for life, then to B and her heirs”

Question 27

What is an vested remainder subject to divestment?

Answer 27

Vested BUT subject to a condition subsequent

Ex: “To A for life, then to B and her heirs, but if B does not survive A to C and his heirs”

Question 28

What is a vested remainder subject to open?

Answer 28

Created in a class of persons where one member is ascertained

Ex. “To A for life, then to the A’s children and their heirs

Question 29

What happens if a life tenant loses possession prior to the end of their life and the condition precedent is not satisfied or the person is not ascertained?

Answer 29

At CL, the contingent remainder would be destroyed and a reversion would be created in O

Today, this would create a fee simple subject to a springing executory interest in O

Question 30

What are the five ways a life tenant can lose possession prior to their natural end and/or a contingent remainder can be destroyed?

Answer 30

Waste: Commits impermissible waste, or overt or willful acts of destruction

Merger: Whenever successive vested estates are owned by the same person, the larger of the two estates absorbs the smaller

Treason against the crown

Die at the same time: If there are alternate contingent remainders and both grantees die at the same time, the contingent remainders are destroyed

Disclaimer: If the grantee says they do not want it and the contingent remainder condition is not met, it is destroyed