## Facts

- In 1923, J.W. Fletcher deeded business property in Batesville, Arkansas, to a Masonic Lodge.
- The deed reserved a life estate in Fletcher.
- The Lodge received a determinable fee, limited to use of the property “exclusively” for the benefit of a specified orphans home and school.
- The deed provided that if the property ceased to be so used, or if the home and school moved from Batesville, the property “shall revert to the heirs” of Fletcher.
- Fletcher died in 1930, leaving a will naming his widow as residuary devisee.
- After Fletcher’s death, the Lodge possessed the property and applied rents to the orphanage until 1948.
- In 1948, the orphanage ceased to exist and the Lodge disclaimed further interest, ending the determinable fee.
- Fletcher’s widow claimed title on the theory that Fletcher retained a possibility of reverter that passed to her under his will.
- Fletcher’s nieces and nephews (his statutory heirs) claimed title on the theory that the deed created a future interest in them directly, to vest upon termination of the Lodge’s estate.

## Issues

1. Whether a possibility of reverter is devisable by will under Arkansas law.
2. Whether the deed’s provision that the property “shall revert to the heirs” created (a) a retained possibility of reverter in Fletcher or (b) an executory limitation granting a future interest directly to Fletcher’s heirs as purchasers.

## Decision

- The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the chancery decree that had awarded title to the heirs.
- The court held that a possibility of reverter is an “interest” in real property that may be devised under Arkansas law.
- The court construed the deed’s “revert to the heirs” language as referring to Fletcher’s retained possibility of reverter, not as an executory limitation in favor of the heirs.
- Because Fletcher’s possibility of reverter was devisable and passed under his will, title vested in the widow when the determinable fee terminated in 1948.

## Legal Principles

- Under a statute permitting a testator to devise real property “and all interest therein,” a possibility of reverter is devisable.
- Where a deed creates a determinable fee and states that upon termination the property shall “revert to the heirs” of the grantor, that language is ordinarily construed as describing the grantor’s retained reversionary interest, not as a separate grant to the heirs, absent clear intent to create an executory limitation.
- Upon termination of a determinable fee, the holder of the retained possibility of reverter (or that holder’s successors by devise) takes possession.

## Conclusion

The court held that Fletcher retained a devisable possibility of reverter and that the deed’s “revert to the heirs” clause did not give Fletcher’s heirs an independent future interest; when the charitable use ended, title passed under Fletcher’s will to his widow rather than to his statutory heirs.


Fletcher v. Ferrill, 227 S.W.2d 448 (Ark. 1950)