MI Bar Property Law 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A grantor conveys "to the school board so long as the land is used for school purposes." The school closes and the land is used for a warehouse. What happens?
- The grantor must sue to re-enter before title revests
- The land escheats to the state
- Title automatically reverts to the grantor, who held a possibility of reverter (Correct answer)
- The school board keeps title but owes damages
Correct answer: Title automatically reverts to the grantor, who held a possibility of reverter
"So long as" creates a fee simple determinable, which ends automatically upon breach, triggering the grantor's possibility of reverter.
Question 2: A woman conveys "to A for life, then to A's children who reach 25." A has one child, age 10, at the conveyance. Under the common law Rule Against Perpetuities, the gift to the children is:
- Void, because a child could satisfy the condition more than 21 years after all lives in being die (Correct answer)
- Valid, because the existing child validates the class
- Valid, because A is a life in being
- Void, because class gifts can never satisfy the Rule
Correct answer: Void, because a child could satisfy the condition more than 21 years after all lives in being die
An afterborn child of A could turn 25 more than 21 years after A and the existing child die, so the interest violates the Rule.
Question 3: A homeowner grants a utility company the right to run power lines across her land. The utility's interest is best described as:
- A license
- A restrictive covenant
- An easement in gross (Correct answer)
- An easement appurtenant
Correct answer: An easement in gross
An easement benefiting a person or company rather than a dominant parcel is an easement in gross.
Question 4: A tenant vacates an apartment with eight months left on the lease. Under the modern majority rule followed in Michigan, the landlord must:
- Immediately terminate the lease and forfeit future rent
- Do nothing and collect rent as it comes due
- Sell the tenant's abandoned property to offset rent
- Make reasonable efforts to mitigate damages by re-letting the premises (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Make reasonable efforts to mitigate damages by re-letting the premises
Michigan and the modern majority require landlords to take reasonable steps to mitigate damages after a tenant abandons.
Question 5: A buyer purchases a home and later discovers the seller knew of, and concealed, serious hidden foundation defects. The buyer's best claim against the seller is:
- Mutual mistake
- Breach of the implied warranty of habitability
- Breach of the covenant of seisin
- Fraudulent concealment or misrepresentation (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Fraudulent concealment or misrepresentation
A seller who actively conceals known latent defects is liable for fraud even after closing.
Question 6: A mortgagor defaults, and the lender forecloses by sale in Michigan. During the statutory redemption period, the mortgagor generally may:
- Redeem only with the purchaser's consent
- Redeem by paying only the missed payments
- Redeem the property by paying the foreclosure sale price plus allowable costs and interest (Correct answer)
- Not redeem once the sheriff's sale occurs
Correct answer: Redeem the property by paying the foreclosure sale price plus allowable costs and interest
Michigan provides a post-sale statutory redemption period during which the mortgagor may redeem by paying the sale price plus costs and interest.
Question 7: Two neighbors orally agree that one may use the other's driveway, and the user then paves the driveway at substantial expense in reliance. The user's interest is best characterized as:
- An easement by necessity
- A prescriptive easement
- A revocable license
- An irrevocable license (easement by estoppel) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: An irrevocable license (easement by estoppel)
A license becomes irrevocable by estoppel when the licensee reasonably relies to her detriment with the licensor's knowledge.
MI Bar Property Law 3
A grantor conveys "to the school board so long as the land is used for school purposes." The school closes and the land is used for a warehouse.
What happens?