Condition. An event upon which a right under contract or to property may arise, become altered, or cease. Condition has been used in connection with personal obligations to distinguish one kind of obligation from another in the same transaction and to limit property. In their primary meaning, conditions precedent are events, but for the happening of which, rights will not arise.
A condition subsequent puts an end to a state of things which, but for its happening, would have continued. Dependent or collateral conditions depend upon their mutual fulfilment as in a contract for sale of land where, unless otherwise agreed, the payment of the purchase money is conditional upon the conveyance and vice versa.
Conditions may be imposed by the parties, either expressly or by necessary implication arising our of the construction of the document or agreement, or they may be implied bylaw according to the nature of the transaction.
A peculiarity of conditions precedent is that an illegal or impossible condition will, as a rule and excepting bequests of personalty (Williams on Executors), avoid the obligation which has been entered into, or the estate which has been granted subject to the conditions, but if the condition precedent has been made impossible by the person who imposed it, the condition will generally be disregarded. While a condition subsequent, if illegal or impossible, has, in general, no effect on the existing obligation or estate, see Co. Litt. 206 a, i, or 218 a., also Re Richardson, (1904) 2 Ch 77. Conditions subsequent are almost universally found in connection with leasehold estates or the grant of a rentcharge, such as a condition for non-payment of rent or breach of covenants. A lease determinable upon a condition of this kind will, however, never be determined by the mere happening of the condition if the Court can gather from the document that the parties intended the lease to be voidable only upon entry by the lessor, see LEASES and RENTCHARGES.
Condition inherent, such as descends to the heir with the land granted, etc.
Conditions are, likewise, affirmative, which consist of doing an act; negative, which consist of not doing an act; restrictive, for not doing a thing; compulsory, as that the lessee shall pay rent, etc.; single, to do one thing only; copulative, to do divers things; and disjunctive, where one thing of several is required to be done. See Jac. Law Dict.; Shep. Touch. 117; 2 Com. Ding. And see CONDITIONS OF SALE.