Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	remainder_n	son_n	tail_n	4,526	5	11.0915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52524	The arguments of the Right Honourable, the late Lord Chancellor Nottingham upon which he made the decree in the cause between the Honourable Charles Howard esq., plaintiff : Henry, late Duke of Norfolk, Henry Lord Mowbrey his son, Henry Marquess of Dorchester and Richard Marriott, esq.: defendants : wherein the several wayes and methods of limiting the trust of a term for years, are fully debated.	England and Wales. Court of Chancery.; Nottingham, Heneage Finch, Earl of, 1621-1682.; Howard, Charles, d. 1713.; Norfolk, Henry Howard, Duke of, 1628-1684.	1685 (1685)	Wing N1402; ESTC R30748	19,382	38

but where they are possessed once of the Cause they press for a Decree according to the usual and known Rules of Law and think we are not to examine things And because it is probable this Cause be it adjuged one way or other may come into the Parliament I will take a little pains to open the Case the Consequences that depend upon it and the Reasons that lye upon me as thus perswaded to suspend my Opinion Whether this Limitation to Charles be void or no is the Question Now first these things are plain and clear and by taking notice of what is plain and clear we shall come to see what is doubtful 1. That the Term in Question tho' it were attendant upon the Inheritance at first yet upon the hapning of the Contingency it is become a Term in gross to Charles 2. That the Trust of a Term in gross can be limited no otherwise in Equity than the Estate of a Term in gross can be limited in Law for I am not setting up a Rule of Property in Chancery other than that which is the Rule of Property at Law 3. It is clear That the legal Estate of a Term for Years whether it be a long or a short Term cannot be limited to any man in Taile with the remainder over to another after his death without Issue That is flat and plain for that is a direct perpetuity 4. If a Term be limited to a Man and his Issue and if that Issue dye without Issue the remainder over the Issue of that Issue takes no Estate and yet because the remainder over cannot take place till the Issue of that Issue fail that Remainder is void too which was Reeves Case and the reason is because that looks towards a perpetuity 5. If a Term be limited to a Man for life and after to his first second third c. and other Sons in Tail successively and for default of such Issue the remainder over though the contingency never happen yet that Remainder is void though there were never a Son then born to him for that looks like a perpetuity and this was Sir William Backhurst his Case in the 16. of this King 6. Yet one step further than this and that is Burgis's Case A Term is limited to one for life with contingent Remainders to his Sons in Tail with remainder over to his Daughter though he had no Son yet because it was foreign and distant to expect a Remainder after the Death of a Son to be born without Issue that having a prospect of a perpetuity also was adjudged to be void These things have been settled and by these Rules has this Court alwayes governed it self But one step more there is in this Case 7. If a term be devised or the Trust of a Term limited to one for Life with twenty Remainders for Life successively and all the persons in esse and alive at the time of the Limitation of their Estates these though they look like a possibility upon a possibility are all good because they produce no inconvenience they wear out in a little time with an easie interpretation and so was Alford's Case I will yet go farther 8. In the Case cited by Mr. Holt Cotton and Heath's Case a Term is devised to one for 18. Years after to C. his eldest Son for Life and then to the eldest Issue Male of C. for Life though C. had not any Issue Male at the time of the Devise or death of the Devisor but before the death of C. it was resolved by Mr. Justice Jones Mr. Justice Crook and Mr. Justice Berkley to whom it was referred by the Lord Keeper Coventry that it only being a contingency upon a Life that would be speedily worn out it was very good for that there may be a possibility upon a possibility and that there may be a contingency upon a contingency is neither unnatural nor absurd in it self but the contrary Rule given as a Reason by my Lord Popham in the Rector of Chedington's Case looks like a Reason of Art but in truth has no kind of Reason in it and I have known that Rule often denyed in Westminster-Hall In truth every Executory Devise is so and you will find that Rule not to be allowed in Blanford and Blanford's Case 13. Jac. 1. part of my Lord Rolls 318. where he sayes If that Rule take place it will shake several common Assurances And he cites Paramour's and Yardley's Case in the Commentaries where it was adjudged a good Devise though it were a possibility upon a possibility These Conclusions which I have thus laid down are but Preliminaries to the main Debate It is now fit we should come to speak to the main Question of the Case as it stands upon its own Reason distinguished from the Reasons of these Preliminarie and so the Case is this The Trust of a Term for Two Hundred Years is limited to Henry in Tail provided if Thomas dye without Issue in the life of Henry so that the Earldome shall descend upon Henry then to go to Charles in Tail and whether this be a good Limitation to Charles in Tail is the Question for most certainly it is a void Limitation to Edward in Tail and a void Limitation to the other Brothers in Tail But whether it be good to Charles is the doubt who is the first taker of this Term in gross for so it is I take it now become and I do under favour differ from my Lord Chief Justice in that point for if Charles dye it will not return to Henry for that is my Lord Cook's error in Leonard Loveis's Case for he sayes That if a Term be devised to one and the Heirs Male of his Body it shall go to him or his Executors no longer than he has Heirs Males of his Body but it was resolved otherwise in Leventhorp's and Ashby's Case 11. Car B. R. Rolls Abridgment Title Devise fol. 611. for these Words are not the Limitation of the time but an absolute disposition of the Term. But now let us I say consider whether this Limitation be good to Charles or no. It hath been said Obj. 1. It is not good by any means for it is a possibility upon a possibility Answ. That is a weak Reason and there is nothing of Argument in it for there never was yet any Devise of a Term with Remainder over but did amount to a possibility upon a possibility and executory Remainders will make it so Obj. 2. Another thing was said it is void because it doth not determine the whole Estate and so they compare it to Sir Anthony Mildmay's Case where it is laid down as a Rule that every Limitation or Condition ought to defeat the intire Estate and not to defeat part and leave part not defeated and it cannot make an Estate to cease as to one person and not as to the other But Answ. I do not think that any Case or Rule was

be limited in Tail the Law allows not a present Remainder to be limited thereupon yet it will allow a future Estate arising upon a Contingency onely and that to wear out in a short time But what time and where are the bounds of that Contingency You may limit it seems upon a Contingency to happen in a life what if it be limited if such a one die without Issue within twenty one years or a hundred years or while Westminster-Hall stands Where will you stop if you do not stop here I will tell you where I will stop I will stop where-ever any visible inconvenience doth appear for the just bounds of a Fee-simple upon a Fee simple are not yet determined but the first inconvenience that ariseth upon it will regulate that First of all then I would fain have any one answer me where there is no inconvenience in this Settlement no Tendency to a perpetuity in this Limitation and no Rule of Law broken by the Conveyance what should make this void And no man can say that it doth break any Rule of Law unless there be a Tendency to a perpetuity or a palpable inconvenience Oh yes Terms are meer Chattels and are not in consideration of Law so great as Freeholds or Inheritances These are words and but words there is not any real difference at all but the Reason of Mankind will laugh at it shall not a man have as much power over his Lease as he has over his Inheritance If he have not he shall be disabled to provide for the Contingencies of his own Family that are within his view and prospect because it is but a Lease for years and not an Inheritance or a Freehold There is that absurdity in it which is to me insuperable nor is the Case that was put answered in any degree A man that hath no Estate but what consists in a Lease for years being to marry his Son setled this Lease thus In Trust for himself in Tail till the marriage take effect and if the marriage take effect while he lives then in Trust for the married couple is this future limitation to the married couple good or bad If any man say it is void he overthrows I know not how many Marriage-settlements If he say it be good why is not a future Estate in this Case as good as in that when there is no tendency to a perpetuity no visible inconvenience All men are agreed and my Lord Chief Justice told us particularly how that there is a way in which it might be done onely they do not like this way and I desire no better argument in the world to maintain my Opinion than that For says my Lord Chief Justice suppose it had not been said thus if Thomas die without Issue living Henry then over to Charles but thus if it happens that Thomas die without Issue in the life of Henry c. then this Term shall cease and there shall a new Term arise and be created to vest in Charles in Tail and that had been wonderful well and my Lord of Arundels intention might have taken effect for the younger Son This is such a subtilty as would pose the Reason of all Mankind For I would have any man living open my understanding so far as to give me a tolerable Reason why there may not be as well a new springing Trust upon the same Term to go to Charles upon that Contingency as a new springing Lease upon the same Trust For the latter doth much more tend to a perpetuity than the former doth I am bold to say it But I expect to hear it said from the Bar and it has been said often the Case of Child and Balie is a great Authority so it is But this I have to say to it first the point resolved in Child and Balie's Case was never so resolved before nor ever was there such a Resolution since Pells and Brownes Case was otherwise resolved and has often been adjudged so since In the next place I will not take much pains to distinguish Child and Balie's Case from this though the word Assigns and the grant of the Remainder by the Mother who was Executrix are things that Rolls lay hold on as Reasons for the Judgment But I know not why I may not with Reverence to the Authority of that Case and the Learning of those that Adjudged it take the same liberty as the Judges in Westminster-Hall sometimes do to deny a Case that stands single and alone of it self And I am of Opinion the Resolution in that Case is not Law though there it came to be resolved upon very strange circumstances to support such a Resolution for the Remainder of a Term of seventy six years is called in question when but fifteen years of it remained and after the possession had shifted hands several times and therefore I do not wonder that the Considerations of Equity swayed that Case But I put it upon this point pray consider there is nothing in Child and Balie's Case that doth tend to a perpetuity nor any thing in the Settlement of the Estate there that could be called an Inconvenience nor any Rule of Law broken by the Conveyance but it is absolutely a Resolution quia volumus For it disagrees with all the other Cases before and since all which have been otherwise resolved but it is a Resolution I say meerly because it is a Resolution And it is expresly contrary to Wood and Saunder's Case which no Art or Reason can distinguish from our Case or that For here was that Case which was clipt and minced at the Bar but never answered Wood and Saunder's Case is this To the Husband for sixty years if he lived so long to the Wife for sixty years if she lived so long then if John be living at the time of the death of the Father and Mother then to John but if he die without Issue living Father or Mother then to Edward Suppose these words living Father or Mother had been out of the Case and it had been to John and if he die without Issue to Edward will any man doubt but then the Remainder over had been void because it is a Limitation after an express Entail How came it then to be adjudged good because it was a Remainder upon a Contingency that was to happen during two lives which was but a short Contingency and the Law might very well expect the hapning of it Now that is this Case nay ours is much stronger for here it is onely during one life there were two The Case of Cotton and Heath in Rolls comes up to this A Term is devised to A. for eighteen years the Remainder to B. for life the Remainder of the first Issue male of B. which is a Contingent Estate after a Contingency and yet adjudged good because the happening of the Contingency was to be expected in so short a time Now that Case was adjudged by my Lord Keeper Coventry Mr.

it had been a void limitation to Charles if then the addition of those words If Thomas dye without Issue in the life of Henry c. have not mended the matter then all that addition of Words goes for nothing which it is unreasonable and absurd to think it should 3. Another thing there is which I take to be unanswerable and I gather it from what fell from my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton and when I can answer that Case I shall be able to answer my self very much for that which I am doing Suppose the Provisoe had been thus penned And if Thomas dye without Issue Male living Henry so that the Earldome of Arundel descend upon Henry then the term of 200 Years limited to him and his Issue shall utterly cease and determine but then a new Term of 200 Years shall arise and be limited to the same Trustees for the Benefit of Charles in Tail This he thinks might have been well enough and attained the end and intention of the Family because then this would not be a Remainder in Tail upon a Tail but a new Term created Pray let us so resolve Cases here that they may stand with the reason of mankind when they are debated abroad Shall that be reason here that is not reason in any part of the World besides I would fain know the difference why I may not raise a new springing Trust upon the same Term as well as a new springing Term upon the same Trust that is such a chicanery of Law as will be laught at all over the Christian World 4. Another Reason I go on is this That the meanness of the consideration of a Term for years and of a Chattel Interest is not to be regarded for whereas this will be no reason any where else so I shall shew you that this Reason as to the Remainder of a Chattel Interest is a Reason that has been exploded our of Westminster-Hall There was a time indeed that this Reason did so far prevail that all the Judges in the time of my Lord Chancellor Rich did 6 Edvardi 6. deliver their Opinions That if a Term for Years be devised to one provided that if the Devisee dye living J. S. then to go to J. S. that remainder to J. S. is absolutely void because such a Chattel Interest of a Term for Years is less than a Term for Life and the Law will endure no limitation over Now this being a Reason against Sense and Nature the World was not long governed by it but in 10 Eliz. in Dyer they began to hold the Remainder was good by Devise and so 15 Eliz. seems too and 19 Eliz. it was by the Judges held to be a good Remander and that was the first time that an executory Remainder of a Term was held to be good When the Chancery did begin to see that the Judges of the Law did govern themselves by the reason of the thing this Court followed their Opinion the better to fix them in it they allowed of Bills by the remainder Man to compel the Devisee of the particular Estate to put in security that he in Remainder should enjoy it according to the Limitation And for a great while so the practice stood as they thought it might well because of the Resolution of the Judges as we have shewn but after this was seen to multiply the Chancery Suits then they began to resolve that there was no need of that way but the executory Remainder Man should enjoy it and the Devisee of the particular Estate should have no power to bar it Men began to presume upon the Judges then and thought if it were good as to Remainders after Estates for Lives it would be good also as to Remainders upon Estates Tail That the Judges would not endure and that is so fixed a Resolution that no Court of Law or Equity ever attempted to break in the World Now then come we to this Case and if so be where it does not tend to a perpetuity a Chattel Interest will bear a Remainder over upon the same Reason it will bear a Remainder over upon a Contingency where that Contingency doth wear out within the compass of a life otherwise it is only to say it shall not because it shall not For there is no more inconvenience in the one than in the other Come we then at last to that which seems most to choak the Plaintiffs Title to this Term and that is the resolution in Child and Baylie's Case For it is upon that Judgment it seems all Conveyances must stand or be shaken and our Decrees made Now therefore I will take the liberty to see what that Case is and how far the Opinion of it ought to prevail in our Case 1. If Child and Baylie's Case be no more than as it is reported by Rolls part 2. fol. 129. then it is nothing to the purpose A Devise of a Term to Dorothy for life the remainder to William and if he dyes without Issue to Thomas without saying in the life of Thomas and so it is within the common Rule of a Limitation of a Term in Tail with Remainder over which cannot be good But if it be as Justice Jones has reported it fol. 15. then it is as far as it can go an Authority for it is there said to be living Thomas But the Case under favour is not altogether as Mr. Justice Jones hath reported it neither for I have seen a Copy of the Record upon this account and by the way no Book of Law is so ill corrected or so ill printed as that The true Case is as it is reported by Mr. Justice Crook and with Mr. Justice Crooks Report of it doth my Lord Rolls agree in his abridgment Title Devise 612. There it is a Term of 76 Years is devised to Dorothy for Life then to William and his Assigns all the rest of the Term provided if William dye without Issue then living then to Thomas and this is in effect our present Case I agree it But that which I have to say to this Case is First It must be observed that the Resolution there did go upon several Reasons which are not to be found in this Case 1. One Reason was touched upon by my Lord Chief Baron That William having the Term to him and his Assigns there could be no Remainder over to Thomas of which Words there is no notice taken by Mr. Justice Jones 2. Dorothy the Devisee for life was Executrix and did assent and grant the Lease to William both which Reasons my Lord Rolls doth lay hold upon as material to govern the Case 3. William might have assigned his Interest and then no Remainder could take place for the Term was gone 4. He might have had Issue and that Issue might have assigned and then it had put all out of doubt 5. But the main Reason of all which makes me oppose it ariseth out of the Record and

is not taken notice of in either of the Reports of Rolls or Jones or in Rolls Abridgment The Record of that Case goes farther for the Record sayes There was a farther Limitation upon the death of Thomas without Issue to go to the Daughter which was a plain affectation of a perpetuity to multiply Contingencies It farther appears by the Record that the Fathers Will was made the 10 of Eliz. Dorothy the Devisee for life held it to the 24. and then she granted and assigned the Term to William he under that Grant held it till the 31 of Eliz. and then regranted it to his Mother and dyed the Mother held it till the 1 of K. James and then she dyed the Assignees of the Mother held it till 14 Jac. and then and not till then did Thomas the younger Son set up a Title to that Estate and before that time it appears by the Record there had been six several Alienations of the Term to Purchasers for a valuable Consideration and the Term renewed for a valuable Fine paid to the Lord. And do we wonder now that after so long an acquiescence as from 10 Eliz. to 14 Jacob. and after such successive Assignments and Transactions that the Judges began to lye hard upon Thomas as to his Interest in Law in the Term especially when the Reasons given in the Reports of the Case were legal Inducements to guide their Judgments of which there are none in our Case But then Secondly At last allowing this Case to be as full and direct an Authority as is possible and as they would wish that rely upon it then I say 1. The Resolution in Child and Balie's Case is a Resolution that never had any Resolution like it before nor since 2. It is a Resolution contradicted by some Resolutions and to shew that that Resolution has been contradicted there is 1. The Case of Cotton and Heath which looks very like a contrary Resolution there is a Term limited to A. for eighteen years the Remainder to B. for life the Remainder to the first Issue of B. for life this Contingent upon a Contingent was allowed to be good because it would wear out in a short time But 2. To come up more fully and closely to it and to shew you that I am bound up by the Resolutions of this Court there was a fuller and flatter Case 21 Car. 2. in July 1669 between Wood and Saunders The Trust of a long Lease is limited and declared thus To the Father for sixty years if he lived so long then to the Mother for sixty years if she lived so long then to John and his Executors if he survived his Father and Mother and if he died in their life-time having Issue then to his Issue but if he dye without Issue living the Father or Mother then the Remainder to Edward in Tail John did die without Issue in the life-time of the Father and Mother and the question was whether Edward should take this Remainder after their death and it was Resolved by my Lord Keeper Bridgeman being assisted by Judge Twisden and Judge Rainsford that the Remainder to Edward was good for the whole Term had vested in John if he had survived Yet the Contingency never hapning and so wearing out in the compass of two Lives in being the Remainder over to Edward might well be limited upon it Thus we see that the same Opinion which Sir Orlando Bridgeman held when he was a Practizer and drew these Conveyances upon which the question now ariseth remained with him when he was the Judge in this Court and kept the Seals and by the way I think it is due to the Memory of so great a Man whenever we speak of him to mention him with great Reverence and Veneration for his Learning and Integrity Object They will perhaps say Where will you stop if not at Child and Balie's Case Ans. Where why every where where there is any Inconvenience any danger of a perpetuity and where-ever you stop at the limitation of a Fee upon a Fee there we will stop in the limitation of a Term of years No man ever yet said a Devise to a man and his Heirs and if he die without Issue living B. then to B. is a naughty Remainder that is Pells and Browns Case Now the Vltimum quod sit or the utmost limitation of a Fee upon a Fee is not yet plainly determined but it will be soon found out if men shall set their Wits on work to contrive by Contingencies to do that which the Law has so long laboured against the thing will make it self Evident where it is Inconvenient and God forbid but that Mischief should be obviated and prevented I have done with the legal Reasons of the Case it is fit for us here a little to observe the Equitable Reasons of it and I think this Deed is good both in Law and Equity And the Equity in this Case is much stronger and ought to sway a man very much to incline to the making good this Settlement if he can For 1. It was prudence in the Earl to take care that when the Honour descended upon Henry a little better support should be given to Charles who was the next Man and trode upon the heels of the Inheritance 2. Though it was always uncertain whether Thomas would die without Issue living Henry yet it was morally certain that he would die without Issue and so the Estate and Honour come to the younger Son for it was with a careful circumspection always provided that he should not Marry till he should recover himself into such estate of body and mind as might suit with the honour and dignity of the Family 3. It is a very hard thing for a Son to tell his Father that the provision he has made for his younger Brothers is void in Law but it is much harder for him to tell him so in Chancery And if such a provision be void it had need be void with a vengeance it had need be so clearly void that it ought to be a prodigie if it be not submitted to Now where there is no perpetuity introduced no cloud hanging over the Estate but during a Life which is a common possibility where there is no inconvenience in the Earth and where the Authorities of this Court concur to make it good to say all is void and to say it here I declare it I know not how to do it To run so Counter to the judgment of that great man my Lord Keeper Bridgeman who both advised this settlement and when he was upon his Oath in this place Decreed it good I confess his Authority is too hard for me to resist though I am assisted by such learned and able Judges and will pay as great a Deference to their Opinions as any man in the World shall If then this shall not be void there is no need for the Merger by the Assignment or the Recovery to be considered in