CONDITION
A future and uncertain event upon the happening of which certain rights or obligations will be either enlarged, created, or destroyed.
A condition may be either express or implied. An express condition is clearly stated and embodied in specific, definite terms in a contract, lease, or deed, such as the provision in an installment credit contract that, if the balance is paid before a certain date, the debtor’s interest will be reduced.
An implied condition is presumed by law
based upon the nature of a particular transaction
and what would be reasonable to do if a
particular event occurred. If a woman leases a
hall for a wedding on a certain date, her ability
to use the hall is based on its implied continued
existence. If the hall burns down before that
date, use of the hall is impossible due to fire;
therefore, the law would imply a condition
excusing the lessor from liability.
In the law of contracts, as well as estates and
conveyancing, conditions precedent and subsequent
may exist.
A condition precedent must occur before a
right accrues. A woman may convey her house
to her son based on the condition that the son
marry by the age of twenty-five. If the son fails
to marry by that age, he has lost his right to the
house. Similarly, in contract law, if an agreement
is signed by one party and sent to a second party
with the intention that it will not become
enforceable until the second party signs it, the
second party’s signature would be a condition
precedent to its effectiveness.
A condition subsequent means that a right
may be taken away from someone upon the
occurrence of a specified event. An owner of
property may convey land to a town on the condition
that it be used only for church purposes.
If the land conveyed is used to build a shopping
mall, then ownership would revert to the original
owner.
A condition subsequent may also affect a
transaction involving a gift. In many states, an
engagement ring is regarded as an inter vivos
gift to which no conditions are attached. In
some states, however, its ownership is considered
to be conditioned upon the subsequent
marriage of the couple involved; therefore, if a
woman does not marry the man who gave her
the engagement ring, ownership reverts to him
and she must return it to him.
Concurrent conditions are conditions in the
law of contracts that each party to the contract
must simultaneously perform.
