Property Law & Real Estate Flashcards

O conveys Blackacre "to A for life, then to B if B survives A." What interest does B hold?

Answer: Contingent remainder

B's remainder depends on a condition precedent (surviving A), so it is contingent.

O conveys land "to the City so long as it is used as a public park." What interest does O keep?

Answer: Possibility of reverter

Durational words like "so long as" create a fee simple determinable, and the grantor keeps a possibility of reverter.

O conveys "to A, but if alcohol is ever sold on the premises, O may reenter and retake." A holds a:

Answer: Fee simple subject to condition subsequent

Conditional language plus a grantor's power to reenter creates a fee simple subject to condition subsequent.

O devises "to A for life, then to A's first child to reach age 25." At O's death, A is alive and has no children. Under the common-law Rule Against Perpetuities, the remainder is:

Answer: Void, because it might vest more than 21 years after all lives in being

A child could be born and reach 25 more than 21 years after A and everyone else alive at O's death have died, so the gift fails.

A life tenant opens a new coal mine on land where no mining had ever taken place. The remainderman sues. The likely result is:

Answer: The remainderman can get damages or an injunction for voluntary waste

Under the open-mines doctrine, a life tenant may work only mines already open, so a new mine is voluntary waste.

At common law, a conveyance "to A for life, then to A's heirs" gives A:

Answer: A fee simple absolute

Under the Rule in Shelley's Case, the remainder to A's heirs merges with A's life estate and gives A a fee simple, though most states have abolished the rule.

O conveys "to A for life, then to O's heirs." Under the Doctrine of Worthier Title, the interest after A's life estate belongs to:

Answer: O, as a reversion

Worthier Title treats an inter vivos gift to the grantor's own heirs as a reversion kept by the grantor.