The Rule Against Perpetuities by John Chipman Gray

The Rule Against Perpetuities
By John Chipman Gray
2002/03 - Beard Books - Law Classic

Volume I - 463 pp. 1587981157 - Paperback - Reprint US$34.95	Volume II - 530 pp. 1587981165 - Paperback - Reprint US$34.95

Attorneys, estate planners, and others who seek to unravel the mysterious and ongoing underpinnings of this Rule will find satisfactory answers in this detailed study.

Publisher Comments

Categories: Bankruptcy & Restructuring | Law | Real Estate | Trusts & Estates

Of Interest:

A Short Historical Introduction to the Law of Real Property

Easements and Servitudes

This extensive treatise elaborates on the legal doctrine governing the creation of future interests in property, especially real property. Doctrines derived from feudal law have all but disappeared through actions of the courts and legislatures, and the law of future interests has been simplified and reduced to the Rule Against Perpetuities. Nevertheless, it is one of the most complicated parts of estate planning, as it can limit the amount of time that property can be controlled after death by a person's instructions in a will.

From the back cover blurb:

The Rule against Perpetuities is aimed at the control of future interests in property, especially real property. The author asserts that it would be better to call it the Rule against Remoteness. Even today, it is one of the most complicated parts of estate planning, as it can limit the amount of time that property can be controlled after death by a person's instructions in a will. This extensive treatise deals with the entirety of the subject, including its history as a doctrine which derived from feudal law, its relations to other parts of the law, and the general principles as they evolved. Attorneys, estate planners, and others who seek to unravel the mysterious and ongoing underpinnings of this Rule will find satisfactory answers in this extensive work.

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John Chipman Gray, 1839-1915, was an American lawyer and law professor. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1861, served in the Civil War and then entered into the practice of law in Boston. In 1869, he began teaching at Harvard Law School and he continued both practice and teaching until the last years of his life. he was a leading advocate of the case system of teaching law and was a recognized authority both in the United States and England on the law of real property. His law firm, Ropes & Gray, is one of the largest, is not the largest, in Boston today. Photo from the Ropes and Gray website.

CHAPTER I
			section
Introduction			1-4
CHAPTER II
Future Interests			5-98
I. Real Estate			6-70
A. Lands of Freehold Tenure			6-69
	1. Common Law		6-17.1
		Remainders and Reversions	8-11
		Rights of Entry	12
		Possibilities of Reverter	13, 14
		Curtesy and Dower	15
		Interests in Land of Others	16, 17
		Escheat	17.1
	2. Statute De Donis		18,19
	3. Statute Quia Emptores		20-51.1
	Tenure and the Statute Quia Emptores in the United States		22-28
		Remainders and Reversions	29.1
		Rights of Entry	30
		Possibilities of Reverter	31-42
		Curtesy and Dower	42.1
		Rights in Land of Others	43
		Escheat and Dissolution of Corporations	44-51.1
	4. Statutes of Uses and wills		52-66
		(1) Bargain and Sale of Freehold in futuro	56, 57
		(2) Contingent Use after Estate for Years	58-60
		(3) Bargain and Sale to Person not in esse	61-65
	5. Later Legislation		67-68.1
	6. Equitable Estates		69
B. Lands of Copyhold Tenure			70
II. Personal Property			71-97
	A. Chattels Real		71-76
	B. Chattels Personal		77-97
		English Law	77-87.1
		American Law	88-97
		Wills	88-90.1
		Deeds	91-97
III. Summary			98
CHAPTER III
Vested and Contingent Interests			99-118
I. Real Estate			100-116
	Remainders		100-112.1
	Reversions		113-113.3
	Other Future Interests		114
	Escheat		115
	Curtesy and Dower		115.1
	Equitable Interests		116
II. Personal Property			117-117.3
	Secondary meanings of the term "vested"		118
CHAPTER IV
Postponement of Enjoyment			119-121.8
CHAPTER V
Origin and History of the Rule against Perpetuities			123-200.1
	1. No Question of Remoteness in Early Times -- Possibility on a Possibility		123-134
	2. Introduction of Conditional Limitations		135-139
	3. Meaning of "Perpetuity"		140-141.6
	4. Conditional Limitations at first held Destructible		142-147
	5. Executory Devises of Terms Introduced		148-152
	6. First Suggestions at the Bar of the Rule against Perpetuities		153-158
	7. Slow Judicial Recognition of the Doctrine of Remoteness		159-168
	8. The Rule against Perpetuities Established		169, 170
	9. Extension of the Rule to cover the Minority of a Grantee or Devisee		171-175
	10. Extension of the Rule to cover Terms in Gross		176-185
	11. Extensions of the Rule no to be justified on Principle		186-188
	12. Any Number of Lives in esse allowed		189, 190
	13. The Connection of the Rule against Perpetuities with the Invalidity of Remainders for Life to Successive Generations		191-199
	14. The Rule against Perpetuities in America		200
CHAPTER VI
The Rule against Perpetuities and its Corollaries			201-267
	1. Nature of Interest		202-204
	2. Vested Interests not subject to the Rule		205-210
	3. Nature of Contingency		211-213
	4. The Contingency must happen within Limits		214-215.1
	5. Lives in Being		216-219.2
	6. Period of Gestation		220-222
	7. Term of Twenty-one Years		223, 224
	8. Limitations of an Estate for Life or not exceeding Twenty-one Years		225-229
	9. Covenants to renew Leases		230-230.3
	10. Time runs from Testator's Death		231
	11. Enough if Interest begins within the Required Limits		232-246
	12. Effect of Remote Interests on Prior Limitations		247-250
	13. Effect of Remote Interests on Subsequent Limitations		251-258.1
	14. Conflict of Laws		259-267
CHAPTER VII
Interests Subject to the Rule against Perpetuities			279-330.3
Present Rights in Lands of Others not Subject			279-282
	I. Legal Interests		283-321.2
	A. Real Estate		283-318
		(1) Reversions and Vested Remainders	283
		(2) Contingent Remainders	284-298.9
		(3) Rights of Entry	299-311.1
		(4) Possibilities of Reverter	312, 313
		(5) Curtesy and Dower	313.1
		(6) Rights in Land of Others	314-316
		(7) Escheat	316.1
		(8) Conditional Limitations	317
		Copy Holds	318
	B. Personal Property		319-321.2
	II. Equitable Interests		322-328
	III. Contracts		329-330.3
CHAPTER IX
Separable Limitations			331-368
CHAPTER X
Limitations to Classes			369-398.2
Independent Gifts			389-395.1
CHAPTER XI
Limitations to a Series			399-410.5
CHAPTER XII
Trusts			411-422.1
CHAPTER XIII
Modifying and Qualifying Clauses			423-442
CHAPTER XIV
Limitations after Estates Tail			443-472
CHAPTER XV
Powers			473-561.7
	1. If a Power can be exercised at a Time beyond the Limits of the Rule against Perpetuities It Is Bad		474.1-509.19
	2. A Power which cannot be exercised beyond the Limits of the Rule is not rendered bad by the fact that within its Terms an Appointment could be made which would be too Remote		510
	3. The Remoteness of an Appointment depends on its Distance from the Creation and not from the Exercise of the Powers		514-530.4
	4. Consequences of an Appointment being too Remote		531-540.1
	5. Election		541-561.7
CHAPTER XVI
Mortgages			562-571.1
	Rights at Law		562, 563
	Rights in Equity		564-571.1
CHAPTER XVII
Customary Rights			572-588
CHAPTER XVIII
Charitable Trusts			589-628
CHAPTER XIX
Construction			629-670
	Cy pres		643-670
CHAPTER XX
Accumulations			671-679.1
APPENDIX
A. Charities for Definite Persons			680-685.1
B. The Thellusson Act			686-727
C. Legislative Changes in the United States			728-752.1
D. Foreign Law			753-773
	I. Scotch Law		753-773
	II. Roman Law		761, 762
	III. French Law		763, 764
	IV. Law of Other Countries		765
	V. Law of Louisiana		766-772
	VI. Law of Texas		773
E. Determinable Fees			774-788
F. Future Interests in Personal Property			789-856
G. General and Particular Intent			857-893
H. Gifts to Indefinite Persons for Non-Charitable Purposes			894-909.2
I. Conversion and the Rule against Perpetuities			910-917
J. Contingent Remainder of Executory Limitation			918-930
K. Whitby v. Mitchell			931-947
L. General Testamentary Powers and the Rule against Perpetuities			948-969
M. Vested Remainders and the Rule against Perpetuities			970-974
N. Effect of the Statute quia Emptores on Tenure			175-89

Index			Page 835

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