MODULE 4.3
COMMON LAW REMAINDER RULES
No Estate Can Commence in the Future Unless Supported.
This rule and the next two are concerned with the problem of a gap in seisin.
The common law had an abhorrence of an abeyance of seisin, because it required
that someone always be seised of land.
The rule now being considered requires that a remainder must be supported
by a prior particular estate of freehold created by the same instrument.
If it is not, it is void.
If you make a grant "to A in fee," or "to A for life,"
the rule will not be breached, because the interests created are not remainders
but immediate interests: they take effect in possession forthwith.
However, if you make the interest contingent, the interest is like a remainder
and cannot take effect. If it were to take effect there would be a gap
in the seisin and the common law would not permit that.
This is an example:
G grants "to A in fee at age 21."
A is 17.
Since A's interest is contingent, it cannot take effect in possession immediately.
Thus, the seisin cannot pass from G to A at the time of the grant. Hence,
if the grant were allowed to take effect, there would be a gap in the seisin.
Since this is not possible, the law declares A's interest void.
The following problems concern variations of this situation.
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