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]