RULE AGAINST PERPETUITIES
rule against perpetuities.(sometimes cap.) Property. The common-law rule prohibiting a grant
of an estate unless the interest must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years (plus a period of gestation
to cover a posthumous birth) after the death of some person alive when the interest was created. •
The purpose of the rule was to limit the time that title to property could be suspended out of
commerce because there was no owner who had title to the property and who could sell it or
exercise other aspects of ownership. If the terms of the contract or gift exceeded the time limits of
the rule, the gift or transaction was void. See MEASURING LIFE. Cf. ACCUMULATIONS,
RULE AGAINST . [Cases: Perpetuities 4. C.J.S. Perpetuities §§ 2, 12.]
“The true form of the Rule against Perpetuities is believed to be this: — NO INTEREST
SUBJECT TO A CONDITION PRECEDENT IS GOOD, UNLESS THE CONDITION MUST BE
FULFILLED, IF AT ALL, WITHIN TWENTY-ONE YEARS AFTER SOME LIFE IN BEING AT
THE CREATION OF THE INTEREST. ” John Chipman Gray, The Rule Against Perpetuities 144
(1886).
“Another scholar who spent a substantial part of an academic lifetime attempting to bring
order and add sense to the rule [against perpetuities], W. Barton Leach, described the rule as a
‘technicality-ridden legal nightmare’ and a ‘dangerous instrumentality in the hands of most
members of the bar.’ ” Thomas F. Bergin & Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future
Interests 178 (2d ed. 1984) (quoting Leach, Perpetuities Legislation, Massachusetts Style, 67 Harv.
L. Rev. 1349 (1954)).
“The Rule Against Perpetuities is a rule against remoteness of vesting. A contingent future
interest is invalid under the orthodox rule if, at the time of the creation of the interest, the
circumstances are such that the contingency may go unresolved for too long a time. The Rule is
not concerned with the duration of interests, that is, the length of time that they endure. It is not a
rule against suspension of the power of alienation, nor a rule against restraints on alienation. It is
not a rule that directly limits the duration of trusts …. The orthodox rule is satisfied if all
contingent future interests are so created that they must vest, if they vest at all, within the
perpetuities period.” Robert J. Lynn, The Modern Rule Against Perpetuities 9 (1966).
“The common law Rule Against Perpetuities (modified by statute in some states) provides
that no interest is valid unless it must vest within 21 years after lives in being when the interest
was created. The rule is something of a misnomer. It does not limit the duration of a condition in a
bequest, but rather limits the testator’s power to earmark gifts for remote descendants.” Richard A.
Posner, Economic Analysis of Law § 18.7, at 394 (2d ed. 1977). [Blacks Law 8th]