CONDITIONAL LIMITATION. (1) A condition providing for the determination of an interest in land upon the happening of a particular contingency. It is a present interest only, lasting until terminated by the happening of the contingency, and is synonymous with a limited or qualified fee, sudi as a grant of an estate in land so long as the grantee shall re main unmarried or while any of his children are minors. At common law a contingent in terest formerly remained in the grantor of such an estate, and upon the happening of the contingency the property reverted to the grantor or his heirs. This rule was abolished in England by statute late in the 13th century, thus malting such an estate an absolute fee, but in many States of this country it has been held that the old rule that the estate will revert to the grantor or his heirs remains in effect. However, the grantor of such an estate cannot legally alienate the contingent interest he may possess therein before the happening of the contingency which terminates the estate in the grantee. (2) A use or interest in land in fugue° effective on the happening of a given contin gency.
In this sense the term is synonymous with shifting use or springing use. For example, a
conditional limitation is granted to D in the following clause of a deed: °Said land is granted unto A and his heirs to the use of B provided that, if C lives and reaches his majority, the land shall go to the use of D in fee simple?) Often the estate determines only upon breach of a condition, as where land is devised to A while he remains in a given city or State, and if he fails to do so, the property to vest in B unconditionally. Upon the happen ing of the prescribed contingency, the estate first limited comes at once to an end, and the subsequent estate arises. . . . A conditional limitation is therefore of a mixed nature, par taking both of a condition and of a limitation: of a condition because it defeats the estate previously limited; and of a limitation be cause, upon the happening of the contingency, the estate passes to the person having the next expectant interest, without entry or claim. 63 Ant. Dec. 725 (at 727). This form of estate is common both in Great Britain and the United States.