How to Analyze a Property Hypo

Draw the chain of title. Put every conveyance, death, marriage, recording, and entry onto a vertical timeline with dates. Property hypos are almost always sequenced problems, and the facts are deliberately given out of order. If a grantor conveys twice, note both transfers and who recorded when.

Then read the call of the question literally. "Who owns Blackacre?" demands a single answer with a chain of reasoning. "What are A's rights?" invites you to canvass several theories, including ones that lose. "Advise the purchaser" means marketability of title, encumbrances, and the recording act. Students lose points by writing a beautiful future-interests answer to a recording-act question.

Classify at the moment of the grant, using the language as written, then trace forward. For each conveyance: identify the present possessory estate, then identify who holds the future interest, then subclassify it. Future interests in the grantor are the reversion, possibility of reverter (follows a fee simple determinable), and right of entry/power of termination (follows a fee simple subject to condition subsequent). Future interests in a transferee are remainders (vested, vested subject to open, vested subject to divestment, or contingent) and executory interests (shifting or springing).

Durational language — "so long as," "until," "while," "during" — creates a determinable estate that ends automatically. Conditional language — "but if," "provided that," "on condition that" — plus express reentry language creates a condition subsequent that requires the holder to act. Where the language is ambiguous, courts prefer a covenant over a condition, and a condition subsequent over automatic forfeiture. Check whether your jurisdiction has abolished the Rule in Shelley's Case, the Doctrine of Worthier Title, and destructibility of contingent remainders; most have, but casebooks still test the classical rules.

First, the Rule Against Perpetuities: no interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, not later than twenty-one years after some life in being at the creation of the interest. Apply it only to contingent remainders, executory interests, vested remainders subject to open, options, and rights of first refusal — never to reversions, possibilities of reverter, or rights of entry. Find a validating life, then test the classic traps: the fertile octogenarian, the unborn widow, and the slothful executor ("when the estate is settled"). Note the charity-to-charity exception. Then state whether your jurisdiction applies common-law RAP, wait-and-see, cy pres reformation, or the Uniform Statutory Rule's ninety-year alternative period — this genuinely varies by state and changes the outcome.

Second, restraints on alienation: disabling restraints on a fee are void, forfeiture and promissory restraints are judged for reasonableness, and restraints on a life estate or leasehold get more tolerance. Third, the Statute of Frauds: every interest in land except a short-term lease needs a writing, subject to part performance and estoppel.

For adverse possession, march through the elements and give each one a sentence of fact application: actual entry, open and notorious, exclusive, hostile/adverse, and continuous for the statutory period. Flag the state-of-mind split — most states use an objective test where subjective intent is irrelevant, a minority require good faith, and a few tolerate deliberate squatting. Continuity is measured by what an ordinary owner of that land would do, so seasonal use of a summer cabin can qualify, and tacking is allowed between successive possessors in privity (Howard v. Kunto, Wash. Ct. App. 1970). Check color of title, statutory tax-payment requirements, and tolling for disabilities existing at the time of entry.

For cotenancy, first classify: tenancy in common, joint tenancy (four unities plus clear survivorship language), or tenancy by the entirety. Then ask whether any act severed the joint tenancy — a conveyance does, a mortgage does in title-theory states but usually not in lien-theory states. A cotenant in sole possession owes no rent absent ouster, but owes accounting for third-party rents and can seek contribution for taxes and mortgage payments. Partition in kind is preferred over partition by sale.

Start by naming the device. An easement is an interest in land; a license is revocable permission unless made irrevocable by estoppel after substantial reliance. If there is no express grant, run implication by prior use (prior apparent quasi-easement, reasonable necessity), implication by necessity (unity of ownership plus strict necessity at severance), prescription (adverse possession elements minus exclusivity), and estoppel. Then address scope, surcharge, and termination by merger, release, abandonment, or prescription.

For promises, separate the remedies. Damages on a real covenant require intent, touch and concern, notice, and both horizontal and vertical privity for the burden. An injunction on an equitable servitude requires only intent, touch and concern, and notice — actual, record, or inquiry, including the implied reciprocal servitude from a common scheme. Say whether your course follows the Restatement (Third), which abolishes privity and touch-and-concern in favor of a public-policy validity test.

For conflicts between neighbors, distinguish trespass (physical invasion, strict) from private nuisance (substantial and unreasonable interference). Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co. (N.Y. 1970) is your authority for permanent damages instead of an injunction. For government action, sort the takings claim: physical invasion (Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419 (1982)), total wipeout of economic value (Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003 (1992)), exactions (Nollan/Dolan nexus and rough proportionality), or the Penn Central balancing of economic impact, investment-backed expectations, and character of the action (438 U.S. 104 (1978)).

Identify the recording act by its operative words. A race statute protects the first to record. A notice statute protects a subsequent bona fide purchaser without notice, whether or not she records. A race-notice statute protects a subsequent BFP without notice who records first. Quote the statute if the hypo supplies one; the words "in good faith" signal notice, and "first recorded" signals race-notice.

Then test BFP status: did the claimant give value (not a donee, devisee, or heir), and did she take without actual, record/constructive, or inquiry notice? Inquiry notice arises from possession by another and from references in recorded instruments. Finish with the shelter rule, wild deeds outside the chain of title, estoppel by deed, and the effect of a defective acknowledgment. If the dispute concerns a deed itself, address delivery — the test is grantor's present intent to pass title, not physical handover.

Organize by parcel and by claimant, not by doctrine. For each transfer, write the classification in one clean sentence — "O conveyed a life estate to A, with a contingent remainder in B's unborn children and a reversion in O" — before you argue anything. Graders award points for that sentence.

Argue the elements that are contested and dispose of the uncontested ones in a clause. When a rule splits by jurisdiction, say so, name both approaches, and run the facts under each; that is where the top scores live. Do not manufacture policy paragraphs unless the question asks for them, and never resolve an ambiguity silently — say which reading you adopt and why.