Document Type
Response or Comment
Publication Date
1-1917
Abstract
As the right to sell may exist either as a result of ownership, or by virtue of a power without or independent of ownership, it is sometimes a question whether words indicating a right to sell, contained in an instrument granting an estate, are intended to give a power, or are merely descriptive of the rights incident to the estate given. When property is devised without any designation of the estate given, and the devise is followed by words indicating that the devisee is to have the right of absolute disposal in fee, or to sell in fee, it has often been held that the words indicating an absolute power of disposal show that the devisee was intended by the testator to have an estate in fee, not a life estate with a testamentary power of appointing the reversion. (See note 18 L. R. A. N. S. 463.) If the devise were expressly of an estate for life, no such inference could be indulged; and it would have to be held that the right of disposal given was merely a testamentary power to appoint the reversion.
Recommended Citation
Rood, John R. "What Words Create a Power?" Mich. L. Rev. 15 (1917): 326-32.