Samuel Nelson

“ There are commonly, in settlements in tail, ten or more successive limitations in tail. In each limitation the remainder is vested, and the remainder-man is seized of the remainder or estate the instant he comes into being. Fearne on Remainders, 217 to 221; Willes, 338. And consequently, if a seizin of the estate, i. e. the vested remainder, be sufficient, each of these remainders is, at the same instant, turned into a fee simple absolute, and made to destroy all the others. ”

“ The remainder-man in fee tail never had at common law the absolute power of alienation, even by common recovery. He might bar his own issue by a fine, but he could not affect the subsequent remainders. 2 Chitty's Blackstone, p. 357, note 18. He might unite with the tenant for life in suffering a common recovery, and thus bar the entail; but the assent of the freeholder was indispensable. ”

“ The general principle is admitted, that a grantor, conveying by deed of bargain and sale, by way of release or quitclaim of all his right and title to a tract of land, if made in good faith, and without any fraudulent representations, is not responsible for the goodness of the title beyond the covenants in his deed. ”

“ This latter clause, it is supposed, restricts and qualifies the general words in the grant, and confines the effect and operation of the deed to the conveyance of such an estate as the grantor was seized and possessed of at the time; and, as this was an estate for life with remainder over, it operated, and was intended to operate, to convey only this estate. ”

“ VII. The intent of the legislature was to seize upon the entail the instant there was in being an owner having a right by the will or settlement to acquire an absolute fee simple, and, dispensing with the formal and dilatory process of fine and recovery, to vest such fee simple at once by act and operation of law ”

“ The covenant in the deed, being in fee between the parties and their heirs, that the land is free from encumbrances, except leases, &c., specified, is broken, if there be any other outstanding encumbrances; and an estate in expectancy oustanding is an encumbrance upon the land and the seizin thereof. ”

“ An heir, to whom a dry remainder expectant upon an estate for life descended, might, at common law, plead riens per discent to an action on his ancestor's bond debt. Fortrey v. Fortrey, 2 Raithby's Vernon, 134.
3. The words 'where any lands, tenements, or hereditaments shall be held,' in the statute of partitions, were held not to authorize a naked remainder-man or reversioner to be a plaintiff. ”

“ VIII. John J. Van Rensselaer and his heirs at law, of whom the plaintiff is one, by his aforesaid conveyance to Daniel Penfield were and are estopped in law from claiming any right and interest in the premises.
1. The covenant in the deed of 1795 amounts to a stipulation and guaranty, that the grantee should quietly enjoy the entire fee in the property conveyed, viz. in the land, where he owned the land itself, and in the incorporeal hereditaments, viz. the rents and reversions, where the lands had been leased. ”

“ The principle deducible from these authorities seems to be, that, whatever may be the form or nature of the conveyance used to pass real property, if the grantor sets forth on the face of the instrument, by way of recital or averment, that he is seized or possessed of a particular estate in the premises, and which estate the deed purports to convey ”

“ Tindall, C. J., in giving judgment, observed, that the case had very properly been argued on the ground of estoppel; for if it were a question of title, the lessor of the plaintiff would clearly be out of court. That he must claim under the estoppel created by the recital in the deed of conveyance. He admitted that Boileau was bound by the recital; and the defendant also, if in privity of estate; that, according to the old authorities, he must either come in the per or the post, that is, he must claim from, through, or under the party. ”

“ It was a common practice to settle to the use of an infant grandson for life, remainder in fee tail to his first and other sons successively, remainder in default, &c., to the use of settler's brother or uncle, remainder to the first and other sons of such brother or uncle, in tail. ”

“ The said John J. Van Rensselaer, by the whole context of the said deed and the said articles of agreement taken in pari materia, held himself out to the purchaser as a fee simple owner, and having at the time an expectancy in fee as presumptive heir, is estopped from claiming the title which afterwards descends upon him as such heir. ”

“ By the covenant against encumbrances, the grantor, for himself and his heirs, covenants and agrees to and with the grantee and his heirs and assignees, that the tract of land conveyed, excepting parts previously sold in fee by his ancestor, John Van Rensselaer, and by himself ”

“ In September, 1836, John Watts died, leaving Philip Kearney and Frederic De Peyster his executors. A supplemental bill and bill of revivor was then filed, making them parties, and also Philip Kearney, Jr., Susan Kearney, and John Watts De Peyster, the devisees of the property in question. ”