Ch. 5 Estates and Future Interests Flashcards
Modern freehold estates (6)
Fee simple absolute
life estate
fee tail
fee simple determinable
fee simple subject to condition subsequent
fee simple subject to limitation
Fee simple absolute
- Has all the rights
- Potentially infinite time without limitation or condition.
- No future interest
- Freely alienable (can be sold or given away during owner’s life)
- Devisable, can be transferred by will at death
- Descendible (can pass by laws of intestate sucession)
- Presumption of fee simple if ambiguous
life estate
- A future interest is also called a REVERSION
- Pur autre vie (for the life of another)
- Ex. A conveys to B for their life and B conveys to C, C’s estate only lasts for B’s life then reverts back to A
- Alienable but NOT devisable or descendible because estate ends at holder’s death
- Can’t give to business entities
- EQUITABLE LIFE ESTATE
- Important for modern trusts
- Trust: separation of legal and equitable title
- Trustee holds legal title to the trust property and manages the assets as a fiduciary for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries, who hold equitable title
fee tail
- Duration determined by lives of lineal descendants of particular person
- Can only be created in 4 states in the US
- “and the heirs of his body”
- granted to “A and heirs of his body” means for duration of bloodline.
- If bloodline ends then the holder of the reversion receives a fee simple
- Holder has limited right to transfer estate, can only alienate til death
- Thus not devisable
- Today a fee tale turns into a fee simple, generally
- Future Interests
- If A grants B less than the sum of his property rigts, A’s resulting right to possession is a reversion. If he grants future interest in a third person, it’s a remainder
fee simple determinable
- A present fee simple limited by specific durational language such that it terminates automatically upon the happening of a stated condition
- Upon existence of stated condition, estate automatically reverts back to grantor (possibility of reverter), a possibly of reverter is freely alienable
fee simple subject to condition subsequent
- Limited in duration by specific conditional languge (provided that but if)
- Termination is not automatic, grantor has to affirmatively demonstrate intent to terminate
fee simple subject to Executory limitation
Limited in duration by specific conditioned language
right of entry when condition met
right of entry is alienable, devisable, and descendible
BUT transferees are subject to the condition
AUTOMATICALLY transfers to transferee when condition met
reversion
when a transferor has given an estate that is lesser than they own. Grantor gets it back
right of entry
only to accompany FS subject to condition subsequent
remainders
capable of becoming possessory immediately upon expiration of prior use
4 kinds of remainders
- indefeasibly vested remainder
- vested remainder subject to divestment
- vested remainder subject to open
- contingent remainder
indefeasibly vested remainder
- created in an ascertainable person
- not subject to a condition precedent other than natural termination of prior estate when something occurs or fails to occur
vested remainder subject to divestment
- ascertainable person
- condition subsequent
“to A for life, then to B, but if B doesn’t outlive A, then to C”
vested remainder subject to divestment
“to A for life, then to B if B becomes president”
contingent remainder
