Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/166

 154 II. etate on condition expreed in the grant itelf, is where an etate is granted, either in fee-imple or otherwie, with an expres qualification annexed, whereby the etate granted hall cither commence, be enlarged, or be defeated, upon performance or breach of uch qualification or condition. Thee conditions are therefore either precedent, or ubequent. Precedent are uch as mut happen or be performed before the etate can vet or be enlarged; ubequent are uch, by the failure or non-performance of which an etate already veted may be defeated. Thus, if an etate for life be limited to A upon his marriage with B, the marriage is a precedent condition, and till that happens no etate is veted in A. Or, if a man grant to his leee for years, that upon payment of a hundred marks within the term he hall have the fee, this alo is a condition precedent, and the fee-imple paeth not till the hundred marks be paid. But if a man grant an etate in fee-imple, reerving to himelf and his heirs a certain rent; and that, if uch rent be not paid at the times limited, it hall be lawful for him and his heirs to re-enter, and avoid the etate; in this cae the grantee and his heirs have an etate upon condition ubequent, which is defeaible if the condition be not trictly performed. To this clas may alo be referred all bae fees, and fee-imples conditional at the common law. Thus an etate to a man and his heirs, tenants of the manor of Dale, is an etate on condition that he and his heirs continue tenants of that manor. And o, if a peronal annuity be granted at this day to a man and the heirs of his body; as this is no tenement within the tatute of Wetminter the econd, it remains, as at common law, a fee-imple on condition that the grantee has heirs of his body. Upon the ame principle depend all the determinable etates of freehold, which we mentioned in the eighth chapter; as durante viduitate, &c: thee are etates upon condition that the grantees do not marry, and the like. And, on the breach of any Rh