Condition

Condition is a restraint annexed to anything, so that by its non-performance the party to it shall receive prejudice and loss, and by its performance commodity or advantage, or it is that which is referred to as of uncertain chance, which may or may not happen. There are several kinds of conditions, as

1. A Condition in a Deed, which is express, as if a person make a lease of property to another, at a certain rent and under certain covenants, upon condition that if the lessee fail in payment at the day or in preference of his other covenants, then the lessor may re-enter.

2. A Condition in Law is implied as when one grants to another an office as keeper of a park, steward, bailiff, etc., for a term of life. Here, though no condition be expressed in the grant, yet the law implies that the grantee shall faithfully execute all things belonging to the office, otherwise the grantor may discharge him.

3. A Condition Precedent is where an estate is granted to one for life on condition that if the grantee pay to the grantor a certain sum of money on a particular day, he shall have the fee simple. In this case the condition precedes the estate in fee which does not vest in the grantee till performance thereof.

4. A Condition Subsequent is where one grants to another an estate in fee upon condition that the grantee shall pay him on such a day a certain sum, or that his estate shall cease. Here the condition is subsequent and follows the estate, and upon the performance thereof continues and preserves the same, so that a condition precedent gains the thing made upon condition by the performance of it, whereas a condition subsequent keeps and continues it by the performance of the condition.

Conditions are likewise affirmative, which consists of doing an act; negative, which consists of not doing an act; restrictive, for not doing a thing; compulsory, as that the lessee shall pay rent, etc.; single, to do one thing only; copulative, to do divers things; and disjunctive, where one thing of several is required to be done.