MODULE 4.2
COMMON LAW REMAINDER RULES
No Remainder After a Fee Simple.
The first common law remainder rule states that a remainder after a fee
simple is void. This will be obvious when you consider the following example:
G grants "to A and his heirs, remainder to B and his heirs."
It is clear that the remainder to B has to be void, because by the grant
to A, G has already conveyed the entire estate and has nothing left to give
to B. However, the rule also applies to qualified fees simple and the rule
is not so obvious in that context.
There is an exception to the rule: It does not apply to a remainder after
a base fee, i.e., the interest created when the heirs entitled under a fee
tail have been barred, but the remainder interests and the reversion have
not. However, this arcane situation is not likely to arise anymore, because
fees tail have been abolished prospectively and were never common in Canada
anyway.
We will now look at some problems involving qualified fees simple.
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continue.