Also known as: devested · devesting · devestment · divest · divestiture
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
To terminate a preceding estate before its natural expiration by shifting possession to another transferee.
Damian conveyed the building to Stone Eats but provided that use for a drive-thru would shift title to Southern Bistro. Stone Eats later installed the drive-thru window. Southern Bistro's executory interest then devested Stone Eats of possession under the deed limitation.
Telecom providers engaged in identical pricing moves without any agreement. A competitor alleged conspiracy but offered no facts showing coordinated action. The complaint failed because parallel conduct alone cannot devest the providers of their independent market positions.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A state legislature passed a statute that retroactively invalidated a prior land grant to Calder. Bull claimed the new law devested Calder of title. The Court held that such a statute exceeded legislative power and could not lawfully devest the vested interest.
Victor executed a deed giving his son a remainder in a painting while retaining a life estate. Upon delivery the remainder immediately devested Victor of the right to full ownership after his death. The son held the future interest free of later revocation.
The President directed the Secretary of Commerce to seize steel mills during a labor dispute. The mill owners argued the order devested them of possession without statutory authority. The Court ruled the seizure invalid and restored the companies' control.
A federal court applied general common law to dismiss a negligence claim arising in Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court held that state substantive law governs and cannot be displaced by federal judge-made rules that would devest a party of rights created under state decisions.
An executory interest devests a prior estate when the stated condition occurs and the interest shifts possession to the new holder before the prior estate would naturally end. The Restatement distinguishes remainders, which cannot devest interests other than those left in the transferor, from executory interests that do cut short prior estates created in the same instrument.
A condition that directs the property to pass to an alternative taker upon a specified event creates an executory interest that devests the prior holder when the event happens. The will must limit the future interest so that it becomes possessory by cutting short the preceding estate rather than waiting for its natural termination.
No. By definition a remainder cannot devest any interest except one left in the transferor. If the future interest operates to cut short a simultaneously created estate in a transferee, it is classified as an executory interest rather than a remainder.
…with this conclusion. In Myers v. United States , 272 U. S. 52 (1926), the Court held that Congress could not by statute divest the President of the power to remove an officer in the Executive Branch whom he was initially authorized to appoint. In explaining its reasoning in that case, the Court said: "The vesting…