Two of my favorite David Becker memories involve the rule against perpetuities. The first is how the Rams came to St. Louis. In typical St. Louis fashion, Jerry Clinton had the lease to the dome, while Eagleton and his crew had the relationship with the Rams. The rule against perpetuities was how the lease was wrested away from Clinton. The lease did not vest until St. Louis had an NFL team, an event that most certainly was not guaranteed to occur within lives in being plus 21 years. The second is the 1964 opinion of the California Supreme Court in Lucas v. Hamm, in which the lawyer botched the rule against perpetuities so the estate plan failed. The intended beneficiaries sued the lawyer for malpractice and the first issue was whether they could sue even though they were not clients. The Court said yes. The second issue was whether the lawyer had committed malpractice. The Court held that the standard of the profession in California was to botch the rule against perpetuities, so there was no malpractice!
Mark G. Arnold, JD 1977