Lord v. Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Inc.

RUDMAN, Justice.

The heirs of Elizabeth Beasom Stephan appeal the entry of a summary judgment by the York County Probate Court (Brooks, J.) in favor of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Inc. (SPNEA). The Probate Court held that, in the absence of clear and unequivocal language demonstrating an intent to do so, a bequest in Mrs. Stephan’s will to SPNEA of “the Phyllis,” a life-sized “dummy board” painting from the eighteenth century, does not create a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, and therefore did not give the heirs a right to reentry after SPNEA…