a game of riddles
Since I'm still on a property kick, here's a riddle (granted, it's not a fair riddle since you may or may not need a rudimentary knowledge of property law in order to solve it, although I'd say that it is a fairer riddle than the question, what's in my pocket? (speaking of which, Lord of the Rings has some fascinating property questions (at least, I think so (but that's just me hypothesizing with my rudimentary knowledge of property law. Maybe someday I'll realize that the Ring's property history really isn't that cool. Until then, I shall delight in the mystery)))):
Grant promises to give Albert a tract of land called Blackacre with the condition that upon Albert's death, the land be given to Betty.
This agreement can be diagrammed as follows:
Grant ----------------> Albert for life, then to Betty.
Once Grant bequeaths Blackacre to Albert, who owns the land?I'll post the answer tomorrow(ish). Good luck! (And maybe I'll give a prize to whoever gets it right! (like my property professor who gave us all two pieces of Werther's butterscotch candy and said he'd give an Indian toy camel (with boots) to whoever could stretch their candy wrappers the most. It was rather odd, and now I'm wondering if I was the victim of a social experiment. In any case, I did not win the camel)).
Well, Blackacre certainly sounds like a bit of British real estate, so I am guessing Grant is British. Also, I am guessing that Albert is Grant's son and that Betty is Grant's granddaughter/Albert's daughter because of the progressive passing of ownership. Once Grant dies, chances are his wife will outlive him because British women live longer than British men (see this article for proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy). I doubt the old widow of Mr. Grant will want to leave her estate (the last ties she has to her old life) to go live in a retirement home, and she is unlikely to allow her son, Albert, to make many managerial decisions about the business of Blackacre without her consent (that is, until dementia kicks in). Thus, I conclude that upon Grant's passing, his widow will be the real owner of Blackacre. The end :)
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