Valkyrie,
ROFLMAO!
Was that the opinion or the dissent?

25 minutes till I go to lunch with my BF
3 hours till the stupidest class ever
5 hours till big/lil gift exchange at XO
11 hours till my last soc test, that I may or may not decide to take
13 hours till my last personality class
96 hours till my pycholinguistics final
120 hours till my personality final
after that- 30 days till my next class :D
Heidi

Isn't it hilarious?

It's actually fake -- my bankruptcy professor assigned it and we all read it, not knowing that it was a joke. I couldn't get over the judge's name -- Blue, J. Too funny! In re Chicadee! I could absolutely die laughing.

OH MY GOD, proper state citation format...HEAD FOR THE HILLS!

48 hours until I get to open my first advent calendar present!!!
13 days until I leave to go home for 3 1/2 weeks! (yay for UF's long winter breaks:D)
3 months until I get to go skiing for the first time! (If anyone has a fave ski spot, let me know; we might not have the family's winter house in Colorado this year.)

ROFL! Actually, I just looked it up in my trusty Bluebook and it should be 27 N.Y.S.2d 198. You'd think I should have learned something after all those hours in the library cite checking. Ha ha.

P.S. In my experience, nobody in the real world really cares about exact proper citation format. I think that it, like the rule against perpetuities, exists mainly to torture law students. :)

8 days till I leave for my friend Heather's engagement party and a reunion with MaggieAxiD
22 days till I go home to FL for Christmas(and get those rosy cheeks again-YAY FL, right G9rAlphaXi!)
27 days till I have to come back to ATL for work(Boooo real world!)
9 months and 22 days till I start grad school
7 months till I quit my job
5 months since I found GreekChat and have had soooooooo much fun with you guys :)

what are perpituities?

From what I remember, although I've blocked most of it from my memory, the rule against perpetuities exists so that people can't have unlimited control over what happens to their real property after they die. The lawmakers favor the free trade of stuff, basically, so they want to limit the ability to exercise control from the grave, as it were.

Yeah. That makes no sense. I'm sure someone else can explain it better.

No, I think you did just fine, valkyrie. If I remember correctly, someone must be able to inherit their real property within the time limit of a "life in being" (ie, someone alive at the time the will was created) plus 21 years.

I think.

LOL

"in perpetuity" means "forever"

Like my esteemed colleagues have already stated, property law generally does NOT want to allow dead people to exert control over land for years and years and years. (also called "dead hand control"). Societal and economic changes can make such restrictions REALLY burdensome on the current property owners.

Here's an example...

Let's say the year is 1901 and Mr. X owns some land and a house on that land. He writes his will, leaving the land to his son, X Jr. "and his heirs" (a way of leaving property to X Jr. and his heir, then to X Jr.'s heir's heir, so on down the line). But then he continues, writing that the land must be used for residential purposes only, and only single family residences. If this condition is not met, then the land is to go to Y and his heirs.

Fast forward to 2001...

In the century that passed, the land surrounding the X estate has gone from large rural tracts of land to smaller farms to even denser habitation. The area has experienced some major industrialization and growth. Now in 2001, X's land is in a huge metropolitan city. The will says that the land can only be used for single family homes, but all the surrounding land has skyscrapers on it.

Clearly the land would be much more valuable if it could be developed to match the area. Assuming the X family has kept the land all this time, they are really tied down by the will. Also, it will be nearly impossible to sell the land with the current restrictions. The city also suffers a detriment in that it cannot benefit from the best use of this piece of land.

There are more problems - let's say that the X's just give up on owning the land and decide to violate the restriction on the use of the land. So now, according to the will, the land is supposed to go to "Y and his heirs." Chances are, 100 years later, Y is long dead and getting chewed up by worms. Y's children are dead. Any heirs that are alive have likely moved, married, have different names, etc. It could be enormously expensive and difficult to track them down, if possible at all.

The "Rule Against Perpetuities" strives to avoid these problems by limiting the length of time that "dead hand control" can operate. It's EXTREMELY COMPLICATED and generally sucks to analyze, but you use a basic measurement of time to see if the restriction can operate in a way that a third party, like Y, can get the land. This basic measurement is "a life in being plus 21 years."

So what the HECK is a life in being? It's someone who is alive at the time of the grant/gift/transfer (in this case, the writing of the will) - a human measuring stick. Basically, you take one of the parties involved and when they die, wait 21 more years. If it's possible that Y might not get the land before that time is up, then Y can NEVER EVER EVER get the land. His "interest" in the land is TOAST.

Example: X Jr. dies in 1925 (of course in a freak accident involving a runaway horse, a barrel of gunpowder, a grand piano, and a sudden tornado). So you add 21 years - now we're at 1936. And guess what, the X kin are still happily living on the land, in a lovely single family home. Y is SH** OUT OF LUCK. No land for Y!

Here's the fun part - you don't have to ACTUALLY wait and see if everyone behaves themselves for that "life in being's" entire life and then for 21 more years. You get to make up your own story. You can pick ANYONE alive at the time of the grant and kill them off in all kinds of fun ways, add 21 years, and then see if it's HYPOTHETICALLY POSSIBLE that the condition might not happen.

Basically, the Rule Against Perpetuities functions to prevent any conditions (that if violated, send the land to certain third parties)that say the land must ALWAYS be used some way or NEVER be used some way. i.e. "so long as liquor is never consumed on the land", "to be occupied only by members of the Such-and-Such Church", "to be used for residential purposes only", etc.

It's just perfect for those late-at-night-I've-had-way- too-much-coffee/alcohol/other semi-illicit stimulants-philosophical discussions. See my "unborn widow" post above.

Sounds complicated, right? I gave you the Cliff Notes version. The real thing and all its little details are so insane, that if you mess it up when you're an attorney, you are NOT liable for malpractice. Normally if you screw up a legal analysis, you're totally liable. But the courts recognize that this stuff is just too crazy.

Small consolation for those of us that will be tested on it! ARRRGGHHH!!! :p

I tried to think of an easy example of this rule to post for everyone...and I thought I did it, but I just ended up confusing myself.

LOL! Do all you people STILL want to go to law school? :D

1 Month and 1 week until i get my end-of-year bonus
1 Month until the new year
26 days until i get presents
26 days until i have to give presents
14 days until i get paid again
7 days until my friend comes from atlanta
8 days until i go to NJ for my friends engagement party
6.15 hours until it is officially the weekend
2 hours until lunch
15 Minutes until my boss gets out of his meeting and i have to get off greekchat and do some work

Couldn't resist bringing this up!
 

Two finals and one editorial till I graduate from college.
Six days till my graduation ceremony and my friends bachelorette party.
One to two days till I find out about a possible job in Chicago or decide to accept a job in Southern Illinois, with a chance of going to grad school ( Uof I or Ariz. State U)
? days till I might hear from a cute boy I met last night.;)
5 days till Karaoke at Mugseys - We went and karaoked last night at a local townie bar, which was so much less stressful than crooning infront of college kids you know. In case anyone cares - we sang I do love you from Coyote Ugly, I wanna be bad by Willa Ford and why do they call it falling by Leanne Womack.

And ...
10 more minutes of procrastination before I study.

Re: Couldn't resist bringing this up!
 

I heard from him today and have a date on Thursday with a guy I think is cute. Go me!