Definition
Per autre vie (Law French: "for another's life") is a phrase describing the duration of a property interest measured by the life of someone other than the holder of that interest. A person holds an estate per autre vie when they possess land or property for as long as a specified third party — the cestui que vie — remains alive. The interest ends at the death of that measuring life, not at the death of the holder.
The classic example: A conveys land to B for the life of C. B holds per autre vie. If B dies before C, the estate does not terminate — it passes to B's heirs or, at common law, to the first occupant who took possession, until C's death. If C dies first, the estate terminates and the property reverts to the grantor or passes to the remainder holder.
Common Language
This is pure legal jargon with no meaningful counterpart in ordinary English usage. The phrase is Law French, a formal legal idiom of the English common law tradition, and has never circulated in non-legal contexts. No common-usage definition applies.
Common Confusion
Per autre vie is frequently confused with an ordinary life estate, which is measured by the life of the grantee (the holder). The distinction matters: in a standard life estate, the holder's death always ends the interest. Per autre vie introduces a third-party measuring life, decoupling the holder's death from the estate's termination. Researchers should also take care not to conflate the cestui que vie — the person whose life serves as the measure — with the life tenant or grantee. The cestui que vie need not hold any interest in the property at all; their continued existence is simply the clock by which the estate runs.
Why It Matters in Research
The phrase appears almost exclusively in older common law materials — English land law treatises, colonial-era conveyancing instruments, and 19th-century American property cases. Researchers working in modern sources will rarely encounter the term standing alone; it appears most often as a qualifier within the phrase "estate per autre vie," which Bouvier's cross-references rather than defines directly. This points to a shelving habit in historical dictionaries: the phrase was treated as a grammatical component of a larger entry rather than a standalone term, so researchers must check estate entries — particularly ESTATE PUR AUTRE VIE or LIFE ESTATE — rather than the per autre vie heading alone.
The concept remains substantively alive in modern property law, but contemporary statutes and cases will use "life estate measured by the life of another" or simply describe the arrangement without invoking the Law French. Researchers tracing a chain of title through older instruments must recognize the phrase in its historical form to understand the duration of any interest conveyed.
The occupancy rule at common law — that if the per autre vie holder died before the cestui, the first occupant could take the estate — was largely abolished by statute in England (Statute of Frauds, 1677) and by subsequent American legislation, which instead directed the unexpired interest to the holder's estate. Researchers examining instruments from before the relevant abolishing statute must account for this rule, which can affect who held valid title during the interim period.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) gives identical, minimal entries: "For or during another's life; for such period as another person shall live." Both treat the phrase as a definitional building block rather than an independent doctrine, consistent with Bouvier's decision to redirect readers to ESTATE PER (presumably ESTATE PER AUTRE VIE). There is no divergence among the historical sources on meaning — the phrase's translation is settled — but all three sources leave the legal consequences of the arrangement to other entries. This means historical dictionary support for per autre vie as a standalone term is thin by design; the substance lives in the estate and conveyancing entries. Researchers relying solely on the per autre vie headnote in any of these dictionaries will miss the occupancy rule, the cestui que vie framework, and the statutory modifications that shaped how such estates actually operated.
Jurisdictional Note
The estate per autre vie is a creature of common law and applies in all American jurisdictions that inherited English common law property principles. However, the rules governing what happens when the per autre vie holder dies before the measuring life vary by state statute. Louisiana, as a civil law jurisdiction, does not use this framework in the same form.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Life Estates; Estates in Land; Cestui Que Vie.