RULE AGAINST PERPETUITIES: history, when to apply, how it works??

Question

As well, how the movie Body Heat incorporates the Rule.

Answer 1

Wow! Whole books have been written on the rule.
It's a rule that prevents property rights from being in limbo too long, or from accumulating estates in a family through indefinite transfers.

At common law, the length of time was fixed at 21 years after the death of an identifiable person alive at the time the interest was created. This is often expressed as "lives in being plus twenty-one years." Under the common-law rule, one does not look to whether an interest actually will vest more than 21 years after the lives in being. Instead, if there exists any possibility at the time of the grant, however unlikely or remote, that an interest will vest outside of the perpetuities period, the interest is void and is stricken from the grant.

Read the wikipedia page. It's a pretty good resource.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_Against_Perpetuities

Answer 2

The above answer is a good one.

Here's how to apply it on an exam. Go through each of the people listed in the question. For each of them, will the rule either guarantee to vest, or be sure to fail, within 21 years after they die. Remember that people can be born at any time (the fertile octagenarian) and might die tomorrow.

Go through each of the people in the question one at a time, and make a note -- yes, will always vest or fail, or no, might still be pending. If there are no "still pending" answers, then there is no RAP violation.