Opinion ID: 2615097
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Remainder Interest

Text: Since the mineral estate in Williams differs significantly from the typical executory interest in Blackacre, it makes sense to call it something other than an executory interest. It is undisputed that the interest retained by the Land Bank is of a lesser duration than its original estate. The Land Bank excepted an estate which will eventually terminate, either because production was halted (for whatever reason) or the recoverable minerals were exhausted. Thus, some interest will remain after the estate excepted by the Land Bank expires and it is that interest which was conveyed to Williams. If Williams' interest satisfies all of the other requirements of a remainder, it should be possible, conceptually, to call it a remainder. According to Simes and Smith, supra, § 103, the other characteristics of a remainder are: 1. The remainder is always created by express limitation or by implication of fact and by the same instrument which creates the preceding estate. 2. At the time of its creation, the remainder must be capable of taking effect in possession at the expiration of the preceding estate, although it does not terminate the preceding estate. 3. The remainder does not normally divest or cut short the preceding possessory estate. Williams' interest was created by express limitation in the same deed that created the preceding estate in the Land Bank, and he stands ready to take possession upon the expiration of the Land Bank's estate. In addition, the estate in the Land Bank will terminate naturally upon the exhaustion of recoverable minerals or the cessation of mineral production for whatever cause. With only a little exercise of property-law imagination, the fee simple determinable in the mineral estate may be analogized to the ordinary life estate. When the minerals die (the passage of 20 years or the cessation of production), the present estate in the Land Bank expires and passes automatically to Williams. In light of the above discussion, it is therefore reasonable and proper to identify an interest in a mineral estate following a determinable fee as a remainder without doing impermissible damage to traditional common-law concepts.