In a life estate with the grant 'to A for life, but if A drinks, then B,' what is B's interest?

Enhance your Bar Exam preparation with Themis Bar Exam Quiz. Use hints and multiple choice questions to sharpen your understanding. Excel in your Bar Exam!

This item tests the distinction between a remainder and an executory interest, and when the right to take can divest the current holder before the natural end of the preceding estate. Here, A holds a life estate, but a condition—“but if A drinks”—triggers a transfer to B. Because the future interest that ends A’s hold and gives possession to B cuts short A’s life estate upon the happening of the condition, B’s interest divests the prior estate. That’s the hallmark of an executory interest, and because it divests a preceding estate rather than following a grantor’s creation, it’s a shifting executory interest. A remainder would only take effect after A’s life estate ends by death, not upon a conditional event during A’s life, so that option doesn’t fit. A life estate in B would imply B already has, or will have, a life estate of B’s own, which isn’t the case here—the future interest is a present, divesting interest that will transfer possession to B upon the condition.