HomeMy WebLinkAboutHelman_Deed_PPT_R.Pearce1884 Deed from Helman to Town of Ashland
Disclaimer: These slides are necessarily a very general discussion of a complicated area of law and of a transaction that took place 133 years ago. No legal opinions or conclusions are intended.
•The legal description: “[That land] known on the official maps of said Town as the Plaza and bounded by Blocks One, Two, Three, and the Ashland Flouring Mill lot.”
•It is a little unclear whether Main Street is included in the description.
COA050579
Superimposed on 1888 survey
COA050580
Superimposed on 2017 tax lot map
COA050581
What did Helmans have to convey?
•Earlier surveys back to at least 1867 show 60’ wide Stage Road (became Main Street).
•Earlier surveys also show a “Plaza” contiguous with that roadway.
•Deed has bargain & sale and quit claim language, not warranty or
special warranty language.
COA050582
Defeasible Fees in Oregon
•There are many variations. The common element is that the estate being conveyed can be cut short by the happening of a specified event.
•30-year duration (with renewals) except for grants to the State,
subdivision of the State, or nonprofits. ORS 105.774
•Types of defeasible estates in Oregon where the grantor has the reversionary interest:
•Fee Simple Determinable (FSD)
•Fee Simple Subject to a Condition Subsequent (FCS)
COA050583
Fee Simple Determinable
•The estate ends upon the happening of a specified event and title automatically revests in the Grantor.
•FSD typically has duration language. “So long as” is the magic
language, but no special language is required if the deed clearly
shows “an intent that the estate automatically ends upon the occurrence of a specified event.” Highway Dept. v. Tolke , 36 Or App
751 (1978).
•Grantor has a “possibility of reverter.”
•A possibility of reverter is a vested future interest that can be conveyed, devised or inherited.
COA050584
Fee Subject to a Condition Subsequent
•The estate ends upon the happening of the specified event andGrantor’s reentry. Both are required. FCS requires an affirmative act by Grantor for the purpose of regaining the estate.
•Grantor has a “right of reentry.”
•Right of reentry is not an interest in land but is a personal right held by Grantor or heirs. The common law rule, followed to date in Oregon, is that a right of reentry cannot be alienated or devised.
Wagner v. Wallowa Cty., 76 Or 453 (1915).
•Courts say they prefer FCS over FSD unless FSD is clearly intended.
COA050585
Language from Helman Deed
“. . . the said following described land be used by the said corporation of the Town of Ashland for the purposes aforesaid” i.e., “to be used in common by the people of said town as a public Square or Plaza and
also for the erection of a Town Hall and Jail therein” . . .
“in case of the perversion of the land herein described from the purposes aforesaid … the land hereinafter described shall revert to and
again become vested in [Grantors] as though these presents had never
been made” . . .
“To have and to hold the said premises upon the conditions aforesaid … forever”
COA050586
QUESTIONS?
•???????
COA050587