DESTRUCTIBILITY OF CONTINGENT REMAINDERS
destructibility of contingent remainders.Property. The common-law doctrine requiring a
future interest to vest by the time it is to become possessory or else suffer total destruction (the
interest then reverting to the grantor). The doctrine could be avoided by the use of trustees to
preserve contingent remainders. • This doctrine has been abolished in all but a few American
jurisdictions; the abolishing statutes are commonly termed anti-destructibility statutes. — Also
termed destructibility rule. [Cases: Remainders 10. C.J.S. Estates §§ 88–89, 91–92.]
“The destructibility rule still exists in its old common-law form in Florida. Various authors
have suggested that it also exists unchanged in Arkansas, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, and Tennessee; but there are no statutes or recent decisions to clarify the rule’s
status in these states.” Thomas F. Bergin & Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future
Interests 79 n.46 (2d ed. 1984). [Blacks Law 8th]