Determinable Life Estates - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition determinable-life-estates

Definition :

Determinable life estates, estates for life, which may determine upon future contingencies before the life for which they are created expires. As if an estate be granted to a woman during her widowhood, or to a man until he is promoted to a benefice; in these and similar cases, whenever the contingency happens-when the widow marries, or when the grantee obtains the benefice-the respective estates are absolutely determined and gone. Yet, while they subsist, they are reckoned estates for life; because they may by possibility last for life, if the contingencies upon which they are to determine do not sooner happen, 2 Bl. Com. 121. See now ESTATE FOR LIFE, and Settled Land Act, 1925, s. 20(1)(vi.).