Conditional Limitation - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition conditional-limitation

Definition :

Conditional limitation partakes of the nature both of a condition and a remainder. At the Common Law whenever either the whole fee or a particular estate, as an estate for life or in tail, was first limited, no condition or other quality could be annexed to this prior estate, which would have the double effect of defeating the estate, and passing the lands to a stranger, for as a remainder it was void, being an abridgment or defeasance of the estate first granted, and as a condition it was void, as no one but the donor or his heirs could take advantage of a condition broken; and the entry of the donor or his heirs unavoidably defeated the livery upon which the remainder depended. On these principles it was impossible by the old law to limit by deed, if not by will, an estate to a stranger upon any event which might abridge or determine an estate previously limited. But the expediency of such limitations, assisted by the revolution effected by the Statute of Uses, at length established them, in spite of the maxim of law that a stranger cannot take advantage of a condition. These limitations are now become frequent, and their mixed nature his given them the name of conditional limitations; they so far partake of the nature of conditions, as they abridge or defeat the estates previously limited, and they are so far limitations, as upon the contingency taking effect the estate passes to a stranger, Hary. Note 1 to Co. Litt. 203 b. These imitations can, with some exceptions, only take effect now as equitable interests, see L.P. Act, 1925, s. 1.