Opinion ID: 2458250
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Words of Limitation

Text: The first inquiry that must be made of the testator's intention is whether the word heirs as used in this Will and Codicil is a word of purchase or of limitation. This determination will resolve the problem of whether the testator intended his heirs to take as grantees of a contingent estate or whether he reserved to his estate and thus his heirs a reversionary interest. A person who takes by purchase is one designated to take as a grantee to whom the transfer is made, but one who takes by limitation acquires an interest not as a grantee but because the duration or quantum of the estate transferred has been limited by the grantor. Broadly speaking, title ... may be acquired either by descent or by purchase. Title by descent is based on inheritance as an heir, or on escheat. Every other acquisition is by purchase, whether it be by gift, conveyance or devise. Words of limitation mark or define the quantum of the estate; whereas, words of purchase are related to the grantee. Harris v. Bittikofer, supra, at 381. In making this decision we are not unaware the words [sic] `heirs' used in a conveyance is a technical word and construed as one of limitation unless, by the terms of the entire instrument, it is apparent the grantors intended its use otherwise. Kay v. Conner, 27 Tenn. 624 (1848). Standard Knitting Mills, Inc. v. Allen, 221 Tenn. 90, 96, 424 S.W.2d 796, 799 (1967). We do not ask what the word in isolation means, but rather we ask how it is used in the instrument and in the accomplishment of the testator's entire scheme of disposition. When ... it is declared that the words [sic] heirs are words of limitation of the estate, it is meant of course that those words point out the line of succession in which the estate is to go, and when it is said they are not words of purchase, it results that they are words of descent, as descent and purchase are the only two modes of acquiring [property]. Harris v. Bittikofer, supra, at 381. In this case, considering the extent to which this testator has provided for the exacting distribution of his estate, we hold that the word heirs is used as a word of limitation. The reverter clause is phrased wholly in terms of the duration of the several trusts involved and does not create any contingent interest in a third party grantee; rather, the testator clearly intended that when the purposes of a trust are not served, then the trust ceases and the fund devolves upon his heirs, having expressly reserved a reversionary interest specifically for this purpose. `[W]hen a limitation is in favor of the `heirs' of a designated person, or is in words of similar import, then, unless a contrary intent of the testator is found from additional language or circumstances, the persons so described by the limitation as conveyees or devisees are those who ... would succeed to property [by descent].' Fehringer v. Fehringer, 222 Tenn. 585, 589-590, 439 S.W.2d 258, 261 (1969).