Estates and Future Interests Flashcards
What are the names used to refer to the parties in a transfer by deed?
“Grant” or “conveyance,” “grantor,” and “grantee”
What are the names used to refer to the parties in a transfer by will?
“Devise,” “testator/testatrix,” and “devisee”
What is the name used to refer to the recipient of an
intestate succession?
“Heir” and “to descend”
Distinction between “words of limitation” and “words of purchase”
Describing the estate v. describing the recipient
O conveys “to A for life”:
“to A” are the words of purchase, “for life” are the words of limitation
What are the two distinctive features of the fee simple absolute?
The first is the heritability characteristic. This means that a landowner with a fee simple absolute interest can pass the land to his heirs at death. The second is the alienability characteristic. While alive, a landowner with a fee simple absolute interest can sell, control, give, or exclude others from the land.
Does this create a fee simple?: O conveys “to B and his heirs forever”
Yes
Does this create a fee simple?: O devises “to C for life”
No
Does this create a fee simple?: O conveys “to D for ten years”
No
What are the two types of life estate based on how we
measure its duration?
Ordinary life estate & Pur autre vie
What future interest follows: O conveys “to A for life”
The grantor: A reversion
What future interest follows: O conveys “to B for life, then to C”
A remainder
What are the estates and future interests created?
O conveys “to G for as long as G lives”
G receives a life estate (ordinary)
O receives a reversion
What are the estates and future interests created?
O conveys “to B until he dies”
B receives an ordinary life estate
O receives a reversion
What are the estates and future interests created?
O devises “to C for life, then to X”
B receives an ordinary life estate
X receives a remainder
What are the estates and future interests created?
O conveys “to D for 200 years”
Term of years
What are the estates and future interests created?
O devises “to E for life, then to Z for life”
E Ordinary life estate
Z Remainder, Remainder to O’s heirs
What are the estates and future interests created?
O conveys “to F for life.” F then conveys her interest “to Google, Inc”
F Ordinary life estate
Reversion to O
Does this create a fee simple?: “E and her heirs, provided that E marries”
No.
Fee simple defeasible. If there is a condition, that’s not a fee simple absolute.
Does this create a fee simple?: O conveys to “F, my pet cat”
No - cannot convey an estate to a non-human animal.
Under the common law, what constituted waste?
Anything that changed the identity of the property
What type of fee tail?: O conveys “to G and the male heirs of his/her body”
Fee tail male
What type of fee tail?: O conveys “to G and the female heirs of his/her body”
Fee tail female
What type of fee tail?: O conveys “to G and the heirs of her body by R”
Fee tail special
O conveys “to B and the heirs of his body”
Fee tail in B, Reversion to O
O devises “to C and her children”
Fee simple absolute
