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Law Outlines Long Merril & Smith Property Outline

Forms Of Ownership Outline

Updated Forms Of Ownership Notes

Long Merril & Smith Property Outline

Long Merril & Smith Property Outline

Approximately 79 pages

This outline covers the entire Merrill & Smith Property textbook used at most law schools. Great integration between the casebook and professor's clarifications....

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Long Merril & Smith Property Outline. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Forms of Ownership

Estates in Land and Divisions of Ownership Over Time

The Common Law Estates

The common law estates concern interests in common law that divide ownership in Real Estate overtime. Not as common now because a trust is more efficient

Interest: any legal right associated with specific property. All estates are interests in land. Other interests that are not estates include easements, restrictive convenants, liens, mortgages, etc.

Estate: a type of property right that measures a person’s interest in the land in terms of duration. An interest may be either a present possessory estate or one that does not take possession until the happening of some future event-a future interest.

Present Possesory Estates

Present Interest When Does it End Example Future Interest Retained
Fee Simple Absolute Indefinite in Time

O grants Blackare

“to Marge and her heirs”

or “to Marge in fee simple”

or “to Marge”

None

None

None

Life Estate Upon the death of a named person O grants-
B to M for life, then to N Remainder, indefeasibly vested
B to M for life, then to her adult children Contingent Remainder
B to M for life, then to N if C occurs Contingent Remainder
B to M for life, then to C, but if C occurs to K Remainder (in N); vested subject to complete divestment
B to M for life, then to her children [N was the only child at the grant] Remainder (in N); vested subject to partial divestment

Fee Simple

Determinable

Automatically upon the occurrence of a named event O grants B to M as long as C occurs, (then to O) Possibility of Reverter (in O).
Fee Simple Subject to Condition Subsequent Indefinitely, but upon the happening of a named event, but can be ended by action (self-help or lawsuit) by the grantor or the grantor’s successor O grants B to M, but if C occurs, then O has the right to reenter and take the premises Right of entry/power of termination (in O)
Fee Simple Subject to Executory Limitation Indefinite, but upon a named event, can be given to 3rd party

O grants B to M as long as C occurs, then to N

O grants B to M< but if C occurs, then to N

O conveys B to M, but if C occurs, then N has the right to reenter

Executory interest (in N)
Future Interests Retained by Grantors
Future Interests Retained by Grantors
Reversion Follows the natural end of a life estate, and in other contexts in which the owner has not disposed of the entire fee

O Grants B “to Marge for life, then to O”

O Grants B “to Marge for life”

Possibility of Reverter Interest reserved to the grantor that follows a fee simple determinable, O will automatically get the property back if the limitation built into the fee simple occurs

O grants B “to C, as long as it used for X, then to O”

OR

O grants B “to C, as long as it is used for X”

Right of Entry (Power of Termination** Interest retained by the grantor that follows a fee simple subject to condition subsequent O grants B “to C, but if it is not used for X, then O has the right to reenter and take the premises”

**Subject to the Doctrine of Laches: right of entry must be exercised within a reasonable time, which is probably subject a statute of limitations in bringing an action in ejectment

Future Interests Created in Grantees
Future Interests Created in Grantees
Remainder Remainder follows a life estate
Indefeasibly vested The identity of the takers if known, no other contingency has to be fulfilled before the interest is ready to become possessory, no condition subsequent can cut short the remainder M grants B “to Homer for life, then to B, L, and M”
Contingent Some uncertainty remains as to the identity of the class of takers or the occurrence of the condition. When the uncertainty is resolved, the remainders are said to vest in interest
Vested subject to complete divestment Occurrence of a condition can cause the interest to shift to someone else M grants Blackacre “To Homer for life, then to B; but if B fails to graduate high school by age 19, then to L”
Vested subject to partial divestment Vested because no uncertainty as to their status as children of Homor and no condition precedent on their remainders. But subject to partial divestment because if more children are born, the interest would diminish. M grants Blackacre “to Homer for life, then to his children and their heirs (Lisa has been born at the time but not Maggie
Executory Interest Interest in a transferee that divests or cuts short a previous interest. M grants Blackacre “to B, but if alcohol is ever consumed on the premises, then to N”

Vesting

Vests in Possession When the interest becomes a present possessory one (when the preceeding interests have terminated)
Vest in Interest Various types of uncertainty about the interest has been resolved
A Reversionary Interest Vested in interest upon creation
Executory Interest Normally must become possessory in order to vest in interest

Conflict Among Holders of Sequential Estates

Waste

The action for waste can be invoked not only by holders of remainders following life estates, it applies in any situation of concurrent or sequential ownership, including landlords objecting to actions by tenants that the landlord claims will damage the landlord’s reversion

Three Categories of Waste:

Affirmative Waste Occurs when life tenant undertakes some affirmative act on the property that is unreasonable and causes “excess” damage to the revisionary or remainder interest Affirmative waste is defined in terms of what is regarded as “normal” use of the property.
Permissive Waste Occurs when life tenant fails to take some action w/r/t/ the property and the failure to act is unreasonable and causes excess damage to the reversion or the remainder Permissive waste is defined by what constitutes “normal” behavior
Amerliorative Waste Affirmative act b life tenant that significantly changes the property, but that increases its market value
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