Court Opinion

ID: 9767394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:18:43.742534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:30.954193
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Justice.
I respectfully dissent.
The provision in the will giving to petitioner time unlimited to purchase respondents’ fee title violates the rule against perpetuities and also is a restraint upon alienation.
Petitioner seeks to apply “reasonableness” in order to escape the rule against perpetuities.
To determine if a will violates the perpetuity rule the test is whether at the very instant of the testator’s death the right or interest devised, by possibility, might not vest within a life in being plus 21 years and the period of gestation.
Petitioner’s contention is that he had a reasonable time after the testatrix died to purchase the land and to deduct from the purchase price the advancements made by him to the testatrix and her husband.
If by possibility petitioner had died the day after the testatrix, the indebtedness due to him by the testatrix would have survived his death for the benefit of his heirs and devisees. The right to acquire a future interest that she attempted to give him was not a personal right, dying with him, but upon his death it would have vested in his heirs or devisees who likewise could have deducted his advancements from the purchase price. By possibility these devisees or heirs could have died without attempting to exercise any right of purchase.
Petitioner makes the point that a will is to be liberally construed to give effect' to the intention of the testator. This is the usual rule, of course. But a construed or an expressed intention falls when the will does not by necessity vest the future interest within the time not condemned by the rule against perpetuities. If by possibility the estate might not vest within that period, the intention of the testator is immaterial and is rejected by Article 1, Section 26, of the Constitution of the State. When it appears that the will provides for the possible vesting of an estate beyond the perpetuity period, it is condemned by fundamental law without regard to the intention of the testator or the devisee. And a “reasonable time” may never be read into a will that by possibility would permit a future estate to vest beyond the perpetuity period. Once it is determined that by possibility the future interest might not vest within the perpetuity period, inquiry ceases, intention becomes unimportant, and reasonableness affords no relief. There*321fore, the rule in Kelly v. Womack, 153 Tex. 371, 268 S.W.2d 903, relied upon by the Court, has no application.
If the provision be treated as an option, not a gift or bequest, to petitioner, such option is likewise condemned and is not aided by reasonableness or by intention.
In Gray’s “Rule Against Perpetuities”, Fourth Edition, it is said at page 362:
“Where, however, a contract raises an equitable right in property which the obligee can enforce in chancery by a decree for specific performance, such equitable right is subject to the Rule against Perpetuities. This was decided by the Court of Appeal in London & South Western R. Co. v. Gomm, where an option to purchase land, unlimited as to time, was held void; overruling Birmingham Canal Co. v. Cartwright.”
In 162 A.L.R., at page 581:
“According to the weight of authority in jurisdictions applying the common-law rule against perpetuities, an option to purchase real property, unlimited as to the time for its exercise or extending beyond the period limited by the rule against perpetuities, violates such rule and is invalid.”
The Court of Civil Appeals on pages 6 and 7 quoted with approval from Maddox v. Keeler, 296 Ky. 440, 177 S.W.2d 568, 162 A.L.R. 578. That this opinion is in keeping with the great weight of authority is apparent from the cases cited in the decision and in the annotations in 162 A.L.R. 581, et seq.
No one doubts the right of a person to contract or to devise an option not viola-tive of the rule against perpetuities. Options are property and pass by contract, devise or descent. 73 C.J.S. Property § 2, p. 151; Vernon’s Texas Probate Code, Vol. 17A, Sec. 58, p. 267. The material thing or res itself is property, and also the right to acquire it, to use it, or to dispose of it, is property. Property “[i]n its ordinary legal signification * * * ‘extends to every species of valuable right and interest * * *.’ ” Womack v. Womack, 141 Tex. 299, 172 S.W.2d 307; Spann v. City of Dallas, 111 Tex. 350, 235 S.W. 513, 19 A.L.R. 1387; Department of Financial Institutions v. General Finance, 227 Ind. 373, 86 N.E.2d 444, 10 A.L.R.2d 436.
Whether an option to purchase is a valid property right, or an invalid claim violating the rule against perpetuities, is to be determined as of the date of the testator’s death. Gray’s Perpetuities, Fourth Edition, p. 235, and numerous decisions cited; 32 Tex.Jur. 834; Anderson v. Menefee, Tex.Civ.App., 174 S.W. 904; Neely v. Brogden, Tex.Com.App., 239 S.W. 192.
On the day when the testator dies by possibility petitioner might not have been able to purchase, he might not have desired to purchase, or he might have died without purchasing. By possibility, his heirs or devisees or successors might not desire to or could not purchase, or would die without purchasing. No one was compelled to purchase within the perpetuity period. As was said in Maddox v. Keeler, supra:
“Assuming, without deciding, that the option retained in the deed created a future equitable interest in the land, susceptible of inheritance, it is obvious that such interest is a limitation upon the power of absolute alienation, so long as it remains in existence. Gray’s The Rule Against Perpetuities, Fourth Edition, p. 355, Sec. 323. Such interest, therefore, being the subject of inheritance, would remain a limitation upon the power of alienation until the owner of the property concluded to sell or convey the tract to another. Thus, the right to exercise the option could pass from generation to generation, until finally it might vest in one coming into being after the expiration of twenty-one years and ten months *322after a life or lives in being at the time of the creation of the estate. * * * ”
The Court of Civil Appeals correctly-held that the provision of the will under consideration violates the rule against per-petuities and constitutes an unlawful restraint upon alienation. The judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals should be affirmed.
GRIFFIN, J., joins in this dissent.