## Facts

- In 1869, Stephen Taber acquired title to land later comprising Ocean City, Maryland.
- In 1878, Taber conveyed a lot to the United States, limiting the grant to use as a “Life Saving Station” only and providing that when not so used the land would revert to Taber and his heirs “without any legal proceedings, suit or otherwise.”
- The United States used the lot as a Life Saving Station for nearly a century.
- In 1967, the United States executed a quitclaim deed to Ocean City reciting that the property was no longer being used as a Life Saving Station.
- In 1971, Taber’s heirs sued Ocean City to quiet title, asserting that the United States’ estate had automatically terminated when the specified use ceased, leaving nothing to convey in 1967.
- Ocean City argued the 1878 deed was invalid and that the United States’ long possession ripened into fee simple title by adverse possession, which it then passed to Ocean City.
- The trial court ruled for Taber’s heirs, and Ocean City appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the 1878 deed’s use limitation and reverter language created a fee simple determinable with a possibility of reverter in Taber and his heirs.
2. Whether cessation of use as a Life Saving Station automatically terminated the United States’ estate and returned title to Taber’s heirs, making the 1967 quitclaim ineffective.
3. Whether Ocean City could defeat the heirs’ claim by challenging the deed’s validity and relying on adverse possession to vest the United States (and thus Ocean City) with fee simple absolute title.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the judgment for Taber’s heirs.
- The court held the 1878 deed created a fee simple determinable in the United States and reserved a possibility of reverter in Taber and his heirs.
- The court held that when the property ceased being used as a Life Saving Station, the determinable fee ended by operation of law and title reverted automatically to the heirs without the need for re-entry or litigation.
- The court rejected Ocean City’s adverse possession/invalid-deed theory, concluding the United States’ possession under the deed was not hostile to the reversionary interest and did not extinguish the possibility of reverter.
- Because the determinable fee had already terminated, the United States had no title to convey to Ocean City in 1967.

## Legal Principles

- A conveyance limited by durational use language, coupled with express automatic-return language, creates a fee simple determinable rather than a mere covenant or a condition subsequent.
- Upon the occurrence of the limiting event in a fee simple determinable, the estate terminates automatically and title shifts immediately to the holder of the possibility of reverter.
- A subsequent deed from the former determinable-fee holder after termination conveys no title.
- Long possession consistent with a determinable fee does not, without hostile possession against the reversionary interest, extinguish the grantor’s possibility of reverter.

## Conclusion

The court enforced the deed’s durational limitation, holding that the United States held only a fee simple determinable that ended when the Life Saving Station use ceased, whereupon title reverted automatically to Taber’s heirs, leaving Ocean City without title under the later quitclaim deed.


Mayor & City Council of Ocean City v. Taber, 279 Md. 115, 367 A.2d 1233 (Md. 1977)