MARVIN MANDEL, Governor                        135

CHAPTER 5
(House Bill 38)

AN ACT to repeal Sections 124, 125 and 126 of Article 16 of the
Annotated Code of Maryland (1966 Replacement Volume), title
"Chancery," subtitle "Jurisdiction," and to add new Sections 143
to 146, inclusive, to Article 21 of the Annotated Code of Maryland
(1966 Replacement Volume), title "Conveyancing," to follow im-
mediately after Section 142 thereof and to comprise the new sub-
title "Limitations on Rights of Entry and Possibilities of Rever-
ter," setting a 30 year limit on enforceability of rights of entry
and possibilities of reverter created after the effective date of this
Act, limiting the duration of rights of entry and possibilities of
reverter existing on the effective date of this Act if notice of inten-
tion to preserve is not recorded as prescribed, limiting the period
within which actions may be brought and land recovered by reason
of the termination of determinable fee simple estates or upon the
happening of conditions subsequent, making possibilities of rever-
ter and rights of entry alienable, and relating generally to rights
of entry and possibilities of reverter in this State.

Whereas, it is hereby declared to be a matter of state policy that
land is the basic resource of the economy and that any private
arrangement which prevents its most economical use, marketability
and development for the needs of the people of the state for resi-
dences, industry, agriculture and commerce is against the public
interest; and that reverter or forfeiture provisions of unlimited dura-
tion in the conveyance of real estate or any interest therein in the
state interfere with the marketability and development and there-
fore constitute an unreasonable restraint on alienation and are con-
trary to the public policy of this state.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Sections 124, 125, and 126 of Article 16 of the Annotated Code
of Maryland (1966 Replacement Volume), title "Chancery," subtitle
"Jurisdiction," be and they are hereby repealed, and new Sections
143, 144, 145, and 146 be and they are hereby added to Article 21
of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1966 Replacement Volume),
title "Conveyancing," to follow immediately after Section 142 there-
of and to be under the new subtitle "Limitations on Rights of Entry
and Possibilities of Reverter," and to read as follows:

LIMITATIONS ON RIGHTS OF ENTRY
AND POSSIBILITIES OF REVERTER

143.

Thirty Year Limit on Possibilities of Reverter and Rights of
Entry Created On Or After the Effective Date of the Act.—(a) A
special limitation or a condition subsequent, which restricts a fee
simple estate in land, and the possibility of reverter or right of
entry for condition broken thereby created, shall, if the specified
contingency does not occur within thirty years after the possibility
of reverter or right of entry was created, be extinguished and cease
to be valid. Any estate of f