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1. There must be a particular estate precedent made at the same time, that the remainder may depend on it.

2. The particular estate must formerly have continued up to the time when the remainder vested, and the remainder must have vested at the latest at the time the particular estate ended; for there could not have been an interval between them, for in such case the remainder, which, of course, is to be understood as being a contingent one, would have nothing to support it, and would therefore have been destroyed. But now, by the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106, s. 8, the determination of the particular estate is not to destroy the remainder, which, it is thereby declared shall, notwithstanding such determination, be capable of taking effect (b).

3. The remainder must pass out of the grantor or lessor at the time of the possession taken by the particular tenant.

4. The person to whom the remainder is limited must be capable, at the time it was created, or else by common possibility, or in potentiâ propinquâ, to be thereof capable during the particular estate. Thus a remainder to the first-begotten son of J. S. (in general terms), born during the particular estate, is good; but if the remainder had been limited in particular by name of baptism and surname, it had not been good, if he was not in esse, for it was potentiâ remota, and not probable that J. S. should have a son of that name (c).

Vested and contingent remainders.]—Remainders are either vested or contingent. A vested remainder is that which depends upon a certain event, upon the happening of which it must unavoidably vest, as a lease for years, remainder to another in fee, or in tail, &c. A contingent remainder is a

VESTED REMAINDERS, ETC.

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remainder limited, so as to depend on an event or condition which may never happen or be performed or which may not happen or be performed till after the determination of the preceding estate; for if the preceding estate determines properly before such event or condition happens, the remainder will never take effect. As we have above stated, the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106, s. 8, preserves a remainder from destruction by reason of the premature failure of the preceding estate; but it gives no support to those which were originally limited without such estate, or to those which are not vested when the preceding estate determines by effluxion of time. There are four sorts of contingent remainders, which may be comprehended under the above definition :-First. Where the determination of the preceding estate is itself dubious and contingent, as where it depends on an event which may never happen. Secondly. Where the contingency on which the remainder is to take effect is independent of the determination of the preceding estate. Thirdly. Where the condition upon which the remainder is limited is certain in event, but the determination of the particular estate may happen before it. Fourthly. Where the person to whom the remainder is limited is not yet ascertained, or not yet in being, as if a lease be made to one for life, remainder to the right heirs of J. S.; now there can be no such person as the right heirs of J. S. until the death of J. S., for nemo est hæres viventis, which may not happen till after the determination of the particular estate, by the death of the tenant for life; therefore such remainder is contingent. Contingent remainders of either kind, if they amount to a freehold, cannot be limited on an estate for years, or any other particular estate less than a freehold. Thus, if land be granted to A. for ten years, with

remainder in fee to the right heirs of B., it is void; but if granted to A. for life, with a like remainder, it is good (d). In devises, however, by last will and testament, remainders, or, as they are more usually called, executory devises, may be created contrary to the rules before laid down; for wills are always more favoured in construction than formal deeds (e).

Executory devises.]-An executory deviseof lands is such a disposition of them by will, that thereby no estate vests at the death of the devisor, but only on some future contingency, and it differs from remainder First. That it needs not any particular estate originally created to support it. Secondly. That by it a fee simple, or other less estate, may be limited after a fee simple. And thirdly. That by this means a remainder may be limited of a chattel interest, after a particular estate for life created in the same (ƒ).

Reversions.]-A reversion is the residue of the estate left in the grantor after some particular estate granted away; as if one seised in fee make a gift in tail, the reversion of the fee simple is in the donor. So, also, if one hath a lease for twenty years, and leases out ten of those years, the reversion is in the second lessor as well as in the first that granted the twenty years. A reversion is never created by deed or writing, but arises from construction of law; a remainder can never be limited, unless by either deed or devise. To the reversion are incident fealty and rent. By a general grant of the reversion, the rent passes thereby as incident thereto, but by the grant of the rent generally the reversion will not pass (9). Where a freehold reversion is expectant on a particular estate of freehold, the reversioner is said to be seised as of fee or of freehold; but if the free

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hold reversion be expectant on an estate for years, the reversioner is said to be seised of the land in his demesne as of fee, that is, he is considered for many purposes as having a freehold estate in possession (h). It should be borne in mind that where a man has two estates in one and the same right, without any intervening interest, the former estate is merged in the latter. Thus, if the reversion in fee descends to or is purchased by the tenant for life or for years, the life estate or term for years is merged in the fee simple. But a tenancy in tail will not so merge (i).

CHAP. XXIV.

JOINT ESTATES.

[See 2 Black. Com. chap. 12; 1 Steph. Com. chap. 8; Litt. Ten. pp. 100-137.]

Estates are also to be considered with respect to the number and connections of their owners.

Tenant in severalty.]—A sole tenant is he that holds lands or tenements in his own right only (that is, in severalty), without any other person being joined or connected with him in point of interest during his estate therein. This is the most common and usual way of holding an estate; and they are all supposed to be of this sort, unless where they are expressly declared to be otherwise.

Joint-tenancy.]-Joint tenancy, so called because the lands or tenements, &c., are conveyed to the tenants jointly, in contradistinction from sole or several tenants, is where lands or tenements are granted to two or more persons to hold in fee simple, fee tail, for life, for years, or at will. But this species of estate can only arise by the act of the parties, and never by the act of law. Joint-tenants must have one and the same interest, and therefore one cannot

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