Rule against perpetuities

Question 1

Rule against perpetuities

Answer 1

Certain future interests are void if there is ANY POSSIBILITY, however remote, that the interest may vest more than 21 years after the death of a measuring life.

• Except charity-to-charity gifts.

Question 2

Rap applies to…

Answer 2

ONLY

1. Contingent remainders
2. Executory interests
3. Some vested remainders subject to open.

Question 3

Rap analysis:

Answer 3

1. Classify the future interest
2. What are the conditions precedent to the vesting of the future interest
3. Find a measuring life
4. Will we know, with certainty, within 21 years of the death of the measuring life, if a future interest holder can take?

Question 4

Measuring life

Answer 4

A person:

1. alive at the date of the conveyance
2. whose life or death is relevant to the condition’s occurrence.

Question 5

Bright-line rules of rap

Answer 5

1. A gift to an open class that is conditioned on the members surviving to an age beyond 21 violates the rap.
– "Bad as to one, bad as to all."  If a disposition might vest too remotely for ANY member of the class, the entire class gift is void.

2. Many shifting executory interests violate the rap. An executory interest with no limit on the time within which it must vest violates the rap.
   – E.g., “To A and his heirs so long as the land is used for framing, and if the land ceases to be so used, to B and his heirs.”
   – Strike offending future interest
   – E.g., in the example above > “To A and his heirs so long as the land is used for farming.”
   – If grammatically incorrect, strike the entire conditional clause.

Question 6

Charity-to-charity exception

Answer 6

A gift from one charity to another does not violate the rap.

Question 7

Rap reform

Answer 7

1. Wait and see, or second look doctrine (majority).
2. Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities
3. Cy pres doctrine
4. Age reduction

Question 8

Wait and see, or second look doctrine

Answer 8

Rap reform effort that determines the validity of any suspect future interest on the basis of facts as they exist at the end of the measuring life.

• Embraces the cy pres doctrine and the reduction of any offensive age contingency to 21 years.

Question 9

Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities

Answer 9

Codifies the common law rap and provides an alternative 90-year vesting period.

• Embraces the cy pres doctrine and the reduction of any offensive age contingency to 21 years.

Question 10

Cy pres doctrine

Answer 10

“As near as possible.”

If a given disposition violates the rap, a court may reform it in a way that most closely matches the grantor’s intent while still complying with the rap.