Review Session--Some Examples to Discuss

1. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre "to Jack Bauer and the heirs of his body by his wife Susan." What interest does Bauer have? Does anyone else have an interest?

2. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre "to Jason Street for life." Jason Street then conveys his interest "to Tim Riggins." What interest does Riggins have?

3. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre "to Jack Reacher for life, then to such of Reachers' children as survive him." At the time of the conveyance, Reacher is alive and has one child, Jack Junior. What interest does Jack Junior have? What interest does Grutz have?

4. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre "to Kevin Youkalis for life, then to his widow and her heirs." At the time of the conveyance, Youkalis was alive and married to his lovely wife, Mary. What interests are created by this conveyance?

5. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre "to Steve Earle for life, and if Joe Ely marries during Steve Earle's lifetime, then to Joe Ely and his heirs, but if Joe Ely does not marry before Steve Earle's death, then to the children of Steve Earle who survive their father." At the time of the conveyance, Steve Earle is alive and has only one child, an 11-year-old daughter, and Joe Ely is alive and has never married. What interests are created by this conveyance?

6. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre "to Dice K for life, and if Jason Varitek survives Dice K, then to Jason Varitek and his heirs." What interests are created by this conveyance?

7. Grutz, the owner of Blackacre in Fee Simple Absolute, conveys Blackacre"to Dice K for life, then to Jason Varitek and his heirs, but if Jason Varitek does not survive Dice K, then to Jon Lester and his heirs." What interests are created by this conveyance?

Make Up--Come With Yor Questions This Thursday!

Sorry for canceling class on such short notice Friday. I had a family emergency and I was the only parent in town.

Here is what I plan to do about a makeup class.

I will schedule a couple of optional "question" sessions, probably immediately following class on Thursday.

The first one will be this Thursday after class (from 3:20 PM until you run out of questions).

I know many of you are struggling with Estates and Future Interests, so this is a good time to get some of the fog lifted.

Why Sprawl is Sometimes a Human Good

Here are some thoughts about a property issue we are not covering right now. But still a very interesting issue.

There are some out there in law and politics who believe everyone should live, close together, in an urban environment. They wish to enact public policies that make it difficult to get from the country to the cities.

I am a fan of roads that connect the suburbs and the country to the cities, because these roads make it possible for people to earn a living in the city while living and raising their families in the country. I was recently reading a wonderful book--The Necessity of Empty Places by Paul Gruchow--that includes an essay on the Nebraska Sandhills. Here is an excerpt I love (p. 22):

I remembered happening upon a settlement on a knoll. It was scarcely even a village. A few houses, an elevator, a gas station. Mostly it was given over to an enormous cemetery.The striking thing about the cemetery was not that there were so many graves, but that the spaces between them were so wide. These people needed as much elbow room in death as in life.

And here is another wonderful passage about the country roads of rural America (p. 58):

It is like the difference between an interstate expressway and a county highway. An interstate is broad and swift and in its own way it keeps to the level. You can drive on an interstate across the almost endlessly enchanting of countrysides and encounter only an unrelieved monotony. The expressway exists in its own world, an unwalled tunnel, and moves at its own urgent pace....

The county road, on the other hand, moves in and through the landscape and exists as one more feature of it. Where there is a tree and a sun, the road falls under shadow; where there is a stream, the road follows down one bank, across the water, and up the other bank; where a tall hill intervenes, the road goes around rather than through it and the traveler enjoys the sensation of having moved among the hills; at the village, the road unhesitatingly takes it in, and your own pace slows to accommodate the taking in, rather than swooping to the right or left around the settlement at a curve calculated for high-speed safety. A stray cow might cross in front of you, and you will be obliged to stop to let it pass and so you will chance to hear the song of the meadowlark on the fence post. The hay wagon ahead cannot be gotten around; you are forced to reduce your own speed to the local standard, and so you see the marsh hawk circling above a pothole.

This last, wonderful excerpt reminds me of my commute to the law school each day. Seeing wild turkeys, and hawks, and foxes, and cattle, and deer, and hearing the song of the meadowlark each day makes me, I think, a better teacher and a better husband and father. The best life might be to live and work in the country. But we often have to settle for the second-best in life, and the second-best for me is to work in the city and live in the country. I thank God for sprawl, for roads that connect the empty places to the crowded places and enable me to live in the one and work in the other.