Future Interests Flashcards
(15 cards)
Fee Simple Absolute
It is the most complete form of ownership recognized at common law and there are no limits on possession, inheritance or survivorship. Furthermore, it is the largest of the freehold estates. Also, a fee simple is freely alienable inter vivos, which means it can be sold or given away by its owner. A fee simple DOES NOT EXPIRE.
Fee Tail
Will pass only to the lineal heirs of the party. Therefore, there may be a time at which no one is eligible to own Blackacre-when X’s direct line dies out. Thus, when X’s fee tail runs out or EXPIRES. Expiration means the natural expiration of the fee tail or life estate. The only thing a owner in fee tail may alienate is the right to possession for the life of that owner; on the owner’s death the property passes automatically to that owner’s direct lineal heir. The fee simple owner controls dispostion; the fee tail owner does not control dispostion, thus his or her children are guaranteed possession irrespective of their parent’s desires.
Lineal Heirs
Sons, daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
Collateral Heirs
Cousins, Nieces, Nephews, Uncles, Aunts
Life Estate
The life tenant has no right to possess something belonging to a future tenant.
Doctrine of Waste
Limits the Life tenant’s use of land, but the doctrine is flexible and permits a court to balance the competing interests. It is an unconditional possessory interest. Also, the life estate is not inheritable. It expires with X and leaves nothing for X’s heirs to inherit. Life estate is freely alienable, but expiration still occurs on X’s death. The life estate is freely alienable but expiration still occurs at X’s death.
Fee Simple Determinable
Possession is conditional. Blackacre is indefinitely inheritable and freely alienable and deviseable.
Heirs
A person’s heirs are determined on his death. A living person has no heirs, only potential heirs. No living person has an heir, but every deceased person does.
Words of Purchase
The only word of purchase in the grant “to A and his heirs” is the word “A.” A is the purchaser, which meant to the common law lawyers that A had either been given or had bought the land.
Words of Limitations
In the conveyance “to A and his heirs”, the words and his heirs are words of limitations.
Heirs of his body
Are used when conveying A fee tail
Fee Simple on Condition Subsequent
It is a fee simple absolute, subject to a condition that, if broken, allows the creator of the estate (the grantor) to enter the land and reclaim it. This right to enter and reclaim is passed from the grantor to his or her heirs, and the original grantor need not be alive when the condition is broken. The only difference between a fee simple determinable and a fee simple on condition subsequent is that a determinable fee is self-executing.
Reversion
When the grantor conveys a lessor estate to the grantee. All reversions are retained interests, which remain vested in the transferor. The hierarchy of estates come into play with reversions. When a reversion is retained, it may or may not be certain to become possessory in the future.
Possibility of Reverter
A possibility of reverter is a future interest remaining in the transferor or his heirs when a fee simple determinable is created. The fee simple determinable always is correlated directly with a possibility of reverter
Right of Entry
-The transferor has a right of entry when an owner transfers an estate subject to condition subsequent and retains the power to cut short or terminate the estate.
