WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF LAW
COURSE SYLLABUS, PROCEDURES, AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
ADVANCED TOPICS IN PROPERTY – FUTURE INTERESTS
SECTION 498A
2009 Summer Session A
Course Materials:
Required Text:
Linda H. Edwards, “Estates in Land and Future Interests,” Third
Edition, Aspen Publishers (2009)
Course Coverage, Goals, and Opportunities:
During this one-unit course, you will be provided with information about
possessory estates and estates as future interests with the emphasis on the latter types of
estates. For either all of you, or most of you, this course will be an in-depth review of
information about possessory estates and future interests to which you were first
introduced during the first semester of Property. You will also be exposed to aspects of
the law of future interests that may not have been covered in your Property class due to
time constraints.
Your additional study of the principles of law regarding possessory estates and
future interests during this course will be useful to you regarding your study and mastery
of other principles of property law (including real property sales transactions and secured
transactions in real property), the law of trusts, the law of wills and intestate succession,
the law of community property, bankruptcy law, aspects of the law of contracts, aspects
of the law of torts, aspects of criminal law, aspects of the law of business organizations
(e.g., corporations, partnerships, business trusts), and aspects of the law of remedies.
Course Methodology:
I will use a combination of lecture and problem solving exercises during each
class session. The course text is in the format of a workbook which includes substantive
material, practice questions, and answers and explanations re the practice questions.
Examination and Grading:
Your course grade will be determined exclusively by your performance on the
course final exam. The course final exam will be comprised of thirty objective questions
and will be a closed books, closed notes exam. You will have sixty minutes within which
to complete that exam.
The general examination procedures that are in force and effect at Western State
University College of Law as delineated in the current edition of the “Student Handbook”
are incorporated herein by this reference as though set forth in full in this document.
Adv. Topics in Property: Future Interests – Sec. 498A
Professor Sheppard – 2009 Summer Session A
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Additional exam instructions and exam procedures that apply to the exam to be
administered in this course will be included as part of the course exam packet. You must
comply with all oral and written instructions and procedures that pertain to the final exam
that will be administered in this course.
The number of exam questions that you answer correctly will determine your
grade in this course. Course grades will be earned as follows:
Grade
No. of Correct Answers
4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
2.7
2.5
2.3
2.0
1.7
1.3
0.0
29 or 30
27 or 28
25 or 26
23 or 24
21 or 22
19 or 20
17 or 18
15 or 16
13 or 14
11 or 12
10 or fewer.
Office Hours, Office Extension, E-Mail, Faxes:
Unless you are advised to the contrary, my office hours for 2009 Summer Session
A will be 4:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. on each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the class
will meet. I will be available for office consultations during those times on a first come,
first served basis. I can also be available for consultations after the conclusion of each
class session.
If you are not able to meet with me during any one of the times noted in the prior
paragraph, you may communicate with me via telephone, e-mail, or fax. Telephone me at
(714) 459-1152; or e-mail me at csheppard@wsulaw.edu; or send me a fax at (714) 5252786.
Attendance and Seating Chart:
Attendance in class is mandatory. If you are absent from more than two hours of
class, you will be subject to being administratively withdrawn from the course due to
excessive absences. The Western State University College of Law attendance policy that
is set forth in the current edition of the “Student Handbook” is incorporated herein by this
reference as though that portion of the “Handbook” were set forth in full in this syllabus.
A seating chart will be circulated during the initial class session.
Adv. Topics in Property: Future Interests – Sec. 498A
Professor Sheppard – 2009 Summer Session A
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Assignments:
Day
Tuesday
Date
05-19-09
Topics
Preface
Introduction
Appendix B: Vocabulary
Possessory Estates
Defeasible Estates
Possibilities of Reverter, Rights
of Re-entry, and Reversions
Text Pages
xvii – xviii
1– 6
185 – 190
7 – 19
21 – 37
40 – 49
Wed.
05-20-09
Remainders: vested, contingent,
vested subject to divestment
51 – 69
85 – 96
Thursday
05-21-09
Executory Interests
Review of Remainders and
Executory Interests
Rule In Shelley’s Case
The Doctrine of Worthier Title
71 – 83 and 97 – 102
103 – 107
129 – 132
132 – 136
Tuesday
05-26-09
The Rule Against Perpetuities
“Relief” from the Rule Against
Perpetuities
137 – 166
167 - 173
Wed.
05-27-09
Post-Conveyance Developments
Including The Rule of
Destructibility of Contingent
Remainders and the effect of the
abolishment of that rule of
destructibility in some states
113 – 127
Powers of Appointment
Course hand-outs
Thursday
05-28-09
Q &A Session
Final Exam (Closed Books;
Closed Notes)
Adv. Topics in Property: Future Interests – Sec. 498A
Professor Sheppard – 2009 Summer Session A
Thirty Objective Questions
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