FREEHOLD ESTATE PROBLEMS

Posted on Monday, March 7th, 2016 at 10:31 pm
  1. From Courtney to Peter and his heirs.
    1. What does Courtney have? Nothing
    2. What does Peter have? A Fee Simple Absolute
    3. What do his heirs have? Nothing. They don’t exist yet.
  2. From Christian to Rosalie for life and then to Mary and her heirs
    1. What does Christian have? Nothing
    2. What does Rosalie have today? Life estate
    3. What does Mary have today? An Indefeasibly Vested Remainder 
    4. What will Mary have when her interest becomes possessor y? Fee Simple Absolute. So the best label for her future interest is “an indefeasibly vested remainder in fee simple absolute”
  3. From Nathan to Qing in life estate.
    1. What does Qing have? A life estate
    2. What does Nathan have? A reversion (in fee simple absolute)
  4. From Jaela to Dominic until he dies.
    1. What does Dom have? A Life estate.
    2. What does Jaela have? A reversion (in fee simple absolute)
  5. From David to Theresa and her heirs provided that Buffalo does not win the Superbowl, then Jairo shall have the right to renter and retake the estate
    1. What does Theresa have? Fee Simple Subject to an Executory Limitation
    2. What does Jairo have? Executory Interest (shifting because if he gets the land, he will get it from Theresa, not David)
    3. What does David have? Nothing
  6. From Martha to Adelina for life, then to Andy and his heirs
    1. What does Adelina have? life estate
    2. What does Andy have now? remainder (indefeasibly vested remainder in fee simple absolute)
    3. What will Andy have when his interest becomes possessory? fee simple absolute
    4. What does Martha have? nothing
  7. From Matt to Elise for her use during her lifetime, then to Matt’s heirs
    1. What does Elise have? life estate
    2. What does Matt have? this is a trick question in some ways… if Matt dies before Elise, we will know who is heirs are and the land can pass to them. BUT is Elise dies first, Matt doesn’t have any heirs and the property can’t just go to them, so it has no choice but to go back to Matt (when the conveyance doesn’t have a place for it to go, back it goes to Matt)
    3. What do Matt’s heirs have? contingent remainder (we can’t yet ascertain who they will be). Once Matt dies, they will have a indefeasibly vested remainder because we will be able to ascertain who they are and we know they will get the property when Elise dies.
  8. From Lim to Kayla for 99 years
    1. What does Kayla have? A term estate (for 99 years)
    2. What does Lim have? A reversion in fee simple absolute (she will get it back in 99 years)
  9. From Doug to Jordan for Sam’s life, then to Tyleana for life, then to Elena and her heirs
    1. What does Jordan have? Life Estate per autre vie (with Sam as the measuring life)
    2. What does Sam have? nothing
    3. What does Tyleana have today? an indefeasibly vested remainder (in life estate)
    4. What will Tyleana have when her interest becomes possessory? life estate
    5. What does Elena have today? an indefeasibly vested remainder (in fee simple absolute)
    6. What will Elena have when her interest becomes possessory? fee simple absolute
    7. What does Doug have? nothing
    8. What id Tyleana dies before Sam? property just goes straight to Elena
  10. From Jordan to Nate for life, then to Tim
    1. What does Nate have? life estate
    2. What does Tim have today? indefeasibly vested remainder (in fee simple absolute)
    3. What will Tim have when his interest becomes possessory? fee simple absolute
    4. What does Jordan have? nothing
  11. From Ian to Jake
    1. What does Jake have? fee simple absolute
    2. What does Ian have? nothing
  12. From Amanda to Shazia for Allyson’s life
    1. What does Shazia have? life estate per autre vie 
    2. What does Amanda have? reversion in fee simple absolute
    3. What does Allyson have? nothing (she is just the measuring life)
  13. From Tabitha to Gabrielle and the heirs of her body
    1. What does Gabrielle have under the common law? fee tail
    2. What are the two modern interpretations of the rule?
      1. Life estate in Gabrielle followed by fee simple absolute in her heirs
      2. Fee simple absolute for gabrielle
    3. What does Tabitha have under each of the three rules above?
      1. under fee tail: she has a reversion. under the others, she has nothing
  14. From Haley to Sam until someone does a remake of the Godfather
    1. What does Sam have? fee simple determinable
    2. What does Haley have? possibility of reverter
  15. From Allie to Jamie but if poetry books are sold on the premises, then Allie has the right to re-enter and retake the estate
    1. What does Jamie have? fee simple subject to a condition subsequent
    2. What does Allie have?  right of re-entry
  16. From Sam to her pet dog for ever and ever.
    1. What does Sam’s dog have? Nothing – this is invalid
  17. From Ben to Donell so long as the estate is not used as a bar
    1. What does Donell have? fee simple determinable
    2. What does Ben have? possibility of reverter
  18. From Beth to Francis for as long as Francis lives.
    1. What does Francis have? life estate
    2. What does Beth have? reversion in fee simple absolute
  19. From Lauren to Tristan and his heirs, but if Lauren is alive at Tristan’s death, Lauren shall have the right to re-enter and retake the estate
    1. What does Tristan have? fee simple subject to condition subsequent. It looks like a life estate but he gets a prize of fee simple absolute if he outlives her
    2. What does Lauren have?  right of re-entry
  20. From Anna to Charlie and his heirs so long as Charlie does not marry, but if he does, then Anna shall have the right to re-enter and retake the estate.
    1. What does Charlie have? So many tricky things here! Assuming Charlie is not married: This looks like a prohibition on marriage. Some jurisdictions actually find that to be against public policy and will hold such a restriction to be void (don’t worry, I didn’t expect you to know that). That means we cross out the restriction and give Charlie a fee simple absolute. If we are in a jurisdiction that allows such a restriction, we end up with a conveyance that looks kinda like a fee simple determinable (as the magic words “so long as”) and it looks like a fee simple subject to condition subsequent because it identifies a right of re-entry. What should we do with something like this? The modern trend is to prefer the fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, but you would need to look to the presumption in your jurisdiction. If there is no presumption, we would want to best embody the intent of the grantor and I think that looks like a fee simple condition subsequent because of the specific mention of the right to re-enter and retake.
    2. What does Anna have? depends on the answer above. If the prohibition on marriage is void for public policy, Charlie ended up with FSA and Anna has nothing. If we interpret it as a fee simple determinable (the least likely result), she gets a POR. If we interpret it as a fee simmple subject to a condition subsequent, she has a right of re-entry,

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