This Will Never Be Useful

Fifteen years from today, someone walks into my office.  Of course I have an office- why wouldn't I?  He or she is here so that I can help them either transfer real property or write a will.  Sure, I do wills and property law 15 years from now.  Why not.

Person: "I would like my sister to have my house when I die."

Me: "Sure, well that's easy en--"

Person: "--and after she dies I would like the house to go to my oldest cousin then living."

Me: "I... well... sure, fine, we can--"

Person: "--and she or he can live there until she or he has four children."

Me: "Look, I'm not sure--"

Person: "Oh, and if my current youngest nephew goes to college at any time after my sister dies I would like him to have the house for four years to help him while he pursues his education, unless he uses it as a frat house."

Me: "... seriously?"

As fun as future estates are as a thought puzzle, I just can't see anyone ever actually needing to use most of it.  The most common common-law problem in this area in property law isn't people devising obnoxiously labyrinthine property transfers, but people wording one property transfer very poorly.  

I suppose I see the point in making sure we know every possible iteration, but for today- just for today- it is driving me a little bit crazy.  

Let's see... the sister would have a life estate, the "oldest cousin" would have a contingent remainder (since oldest cousin is an open class and could change) fee simple determinable (child limit- this also gives a possibility of reverter to the estate of the original person) subject to executory limitation (youngest nephew going to college), and "youngest nephew" has an executory interest in a term of years in the estate subject to a condition subsequent (frat house).  The original owner's estate has, among other things, a possibility of reverter and a possibility of right of entry.  And I haven't even gone over it to check whether any of this violates the rule against perpetuities (and I know it does)- that's an entirely separate and equally esoteric analysis derived from an arbitrary opinion by a court 400 years ago (which is ironic, sort of). 

And I'm probably wrong about most of it, too.  And I made up the example.  That's how annoying these things are.  And this is only going to be 10% of the exam.  

In non-exam news... well, yesterday I went to go see 1776 as a study break, so that was very good (John Adams has always been one of my favorites and the music is great).  And also a girl from my class gave me a 24-pack of Monster energy drinks because someone had sent it to her and she hates them, so that was also very nice.  And also Kelsey sent me experimental energy sheets that have not been evaluated by the FDA but "may cause nervousness, sleeplessness and occasional rapid heartbeat," so I guess that's good too.  And also David and I signed our lease for the summer, so... more good news.  

Yay buzz saw!