Restrictive language creates life estate

The testatrix’s will gave a farm to her two daughters with the restriction that it not be sold during their lives and for 21 years thereafter and on their deaths, title is to vest in “the heirs of their bodies per stirpes.”

The court reversed the trial court judgment that the daughters owned the land in fee simple, holding that the language giving the land to the daughters’ heirs indicated that the testatrix did not intend to give a fee simple but rather a life estate with a remainder in the heirs.  The court remanded the case for consideration of what effect, if any, the restriction on sale has on the remainder interest.  Barnett v. Estate of Anderson, 966 So. 2d 915 (Ala. 2007).