Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 70 > Chapter 15 - Definitions and Kinds of Estates in Real Property

• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.