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See also: REMAINDER, REVERSION . In the view of See also:English See also:law a remainder or reversion is classed either as an incorporeal See also:hereditament or, with greater correctness, as an See also:estate in expectancy. That is to say, it is a See also:present See also:interest subject to an existing estate in See also:possession called the particular estate, which must determine before the estate in expectancy can become an estate in possession. A remainder or reversion is in strictness confined to real estate, whether legal or equitable, though a similar interest may exist in personalty. The particular estate and the remainder or reversion together make up the whole estate over which the grantor has See also:power of disposition? Accordingly a remainder or reversion limited on an estate in See also:fee See also:simple is void. The difference between a remainder and a reversion, stated as simply as possible, is that the latter is that undisposed-of See also:part of the estate which after the determination of the particular estate will fall into the possession of the See also:original grantor or his representative, while a remainder is that part of the estate which under the same circumstances will fall into the possession of a See also:person other than the original grantor or his 'Compare the See also:life-See also:rent and fee of Scots law. representative. A reversion, in fact, is a See also:special instance of a remainder, distinguishable from it in two important respects: (I) a reversion arises by operation of law on every See also:
A See also: conveyance by the tenant of a particular estate to the remainderman or reversioner is called a surrender; a conveyance by the remainderman or reversioner to the tenant is a See also:release. Remainder.—Remainders are either vested or contingent. " An estate is vested in interest when there is a present fixed right of future enjoyment. An estate is contingent when a right of enjoyment is to accrue on an event which is dubious and uncertain. A contingent remainder is a remainder limited so as to depend on an event or See also:condition which may never happen or be performed, or which may not happen or be performed till after the determination of the preceding estate " (See also:Fearne, Contingent Remainders, 2, 3). Contingent remainders are of two kinds, those limited to uncertain persons and those limited on uncertain events. A grant by A to B for life, followed by a remainder in fee to the See also:heir of C is an example of a contingent remainder? Until the See also:death of C he can have no heir. If C See also:die during the lifetime of B, the contingent remainder of his heir becomes vested; if C survive B, the remainder is at common law destroyed owing to the determination of the particular estate, for every remainder must have a particular estate to support it. In the See also:case of a contingent remainder, it must become vested during the continuance of the particular estate or at the instant of its determination. This See also:rule of law no doubt arose from the disfavour shown by the law to contingent remainders on their first introduction. They were not firmly established even when See also:Littleton wrote in the reign of See also:Edward IV.(see See also:
In the latter case the rule as applied to contingent remainders is somewhat different from that affecting executory interests. The See also: period is different, the remainder allowing the tying up of property for a longer See also:time than the executory interest. There is also the further difference that the rule does not affect a contingent remainder if it become vested before the determination of the particular estate. An executory interest is void if it may transgress the rule, even though it do not actually do so. For the rule in See also:Shelley's case, important. in connexion with remainders, see that See also:title. The See also:state See also:laws of the See also:United States affecting remainders will be found in See also:Washburn, Real Property, ii, bk. ii. As a See also:general rule contingent remainders have been rendered of little See also:practical importance by enactments that they shall take effect as executory devises or shall not determine on determination of the particular estate. Reversion.—Unlike remainders, all reversions are present or vested estates. The law of reversion, like that of remainder, has been considerably modified by See also:statute. It was formerly considered ' A contingent remainder amounting to a freehold cannot be limited on a particular estate less than a freehold. that or1 the grant of the reversion the tenant should have the opportunity of objecting to the substitution of a new landlord. It was therefore necessary that he should attorn tenant to the purchaser.Without such aftornment the grant was void, unless indeed See also: attornment were compelled by levying a See also:fine. The See also:necessity of attornment was abolished by 4 & 5 See also:Anne c. 16. Its only use at present seems to be in the case of See also:mortgage. A mortgagor in possession sometimes attorns tenant to the mortgagee in See also:order that the latter may treat him as his tenant and distrain for his interest as rent. The legal view that rent was incident to the reversion led at common law to a destruction of the rent by destruction of the reversion. This would chiefly happen in the case of an under-tenant and his immediate reversioner, if the inter-mediate became merged in the See also:superior reversion. To obviate this difficulty it was provided by the Real Property Act 1845, § 9, that, on surrender or merger of a reversion expectant on a See also:lease, the rights under it should subsist to the reversion conferring the next vested right. The question as to what covenants run with the reversion is one of the most difficult in law. The rule of common law seems to have been that covenants ran with the See also:land but not with the reversion, that is to say, the benefit of them survived to a new tenant but not to a new landlord. The effect of the act of 32 See also:Hen. VIII. c.34, and of the See also: Conveyancing Act 1881, has been to annex to the reversion as a general rule the benefit of the rent and the lessee's covenants and the See also:burden of the lessor's See also:covenant. Merely See also:collateral covenants, however, do not run with the reversion, but are regarded as See also:personal contracts between lessor and lessee. At common law on the severance of a reversion a grantee of part of the reversion could not take See also:advantage of any condition for re-entry, on the ground that the condition was entire and not severable. This See also:doctrine was abolished by one of See also:Lord St Leonard's Acts in 1859. The Conveyancing Act 1881, § 12, now provides in wider terms than those of the act of 1859 that on severance of the reversion every condition capable of See also:apportionment is to be apportioned. In order to guard against fraudulent concealment of the death of a See also:cestui que See also:vie, or person for whose life any lands are held by another, it was provided by 6 Anne c. 18 that on application to the See also:court of See also:chancery by the person entitled in remainder, reversion or expectancy, the cestui que vie should be produced to the court or its commissioners, or in See also:default should be taken to be dead. In See also:Scotland reversion is generally used in a sense approaching that of the See also:equity of redemption of English law. A reversion is either legal, as in an See also:adjudication, or conventional, as in a wadset. Reversions are registered under the See also:system established by the Act 1617 c. 16. In the United States the act of 32 Hen.VIII. c. 34 " is held to be in force in See also: Massachusetts, See also:Pennsylvania, See also:Illinois, and See also:Connecticut, but was never in force in New See also:York till re-enacted " (See also:Wash-See also:burn, Real Property, i.).Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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