FUTURE INTERESTS Flashcards
POSSIBILITY OF REVERTER: fee simple determinable
FSD estates: need not be expressly retained.
The interest that is left in a grantor who conveys an estate in fee simple determinable l
RIGHT OF ENTRY (POWER OF TERMINATION): fee simple subject to condition subsequent
FSSCS estates: must be expressly reserved, is not automatic.
Waiver: can elect whether or not to terminate the estate, right of re-entry maybe waived expressly or through conduct
- inaction is not sufficient conduct to trigger waiver
THE REVERSION
A person owning an estate in real property can create and transfer a lesser estate
- transferable, devisable by will and descendible through inheritance
- all reversionary interests are “vested” because both the owner and the event upon which it will become possessory are certain
- not subject to RAP
REMAINDERS: life estates
future interest created in a transferee that is capable of taking in present possession ad enjoyment upon the natural termination of the preceding estates created in the same disposition.
- must be expressly created in the instrument creating the intermediate possessor estate
- always follow life estates
REMAINDERS- VESTED REMAINDERS- INDEFEASIBLY VESTED REMAINDER- certain to acquire an estate in the future
can be created and held only by an ascertained person or persons in being;
must be certain to become possessory on termination of the prior estates
must not be subject to being defeated or divested
must not be subject to being diminished
REMAINDERS- VESTED REMAINDERS- SUBJECT TO OPEN
created in a class of persons that is certain to take on the termination of the preceding estates, but is subject to diminution by reason of other persons becoming entitled to share in the remainder - the class closes when any member can demand possession
REMAINDERS- VESTED REMAINDERS- SUBJECT TO TOTAL DIVESTMENT
arises when the remainderman is in existence and ascertained and his interest is not subject to any condition precedent, but his right to possession and enjoyment is subject to being defeated by the happening of some condition subsequent
COMMA RULE
to determine the difference between a contingent remainder and a remainder subject to total divestment:
then conditional language in a transfer follows language, that taken alone and set off by commas, would create a vested remainder, the condition is a condition subsequent, and you have a vested remainder subject to complete divestment
CONTINGENT REMAINDER
Two ways to create:
- Subject to a condition precedent (appears before the language creating the remainder or is woven into the grant to the remainderman)
- created in an un-ascertained or unknown person (To A for life, then to B’s first child. A is alive, B as of yet has no children) , or both 1 and 2.
RELATED DOCTRINE OF MERGER
Whenever the same person acquires all of the existing interest in land, present and future, a merger occurs- become a FSA
RULE IN SHELLEY’S CASE
Where a freehold estate was given to A and in the same instrument a remainder was limited to the heirs of A and the freehold estate and the remainder were both legal or equitable, the proported remainder in the heirs was not recognized and A took both the freehold estate and the remainder
DOCTRINE OF WORTHIER TITLE
a remainder limited to the grantor’s heirs is invalid and the grantor retains a reversion in the property
- does not apply if the grantor has clearly manifested an intent to create a future interest in his heirs
EXECUTORY INTERESTS
If it is not a remainder because the preceding estate is not a life estate, then it is an executory interest
Any future interest in a transferee that does not have the characteristics of a remainder
- divests the interest of another
EXECUTORY INTERESTS: SHIFTING EXECUTORY INTERESTS
divests the inrerest of another trasnferee- cuts short a prior estate created by the same conveyance
EXECUTORY INTERESTS: SPRINGING EXECUTORY INTERESTS
an interest that follows a gap in possession or divests the estate of the transferor
