Hahn v. Hagar

Edna Hahn's will left her son Thomas a life estate in the family farm, with the remainder to pass equally to Thomas and his three siblings if he stopped farming. Thomas and two siblings (plaintiffs) later wanted to sell the farm's development rights to permanently preserve it as farmland, but their sister Johanne Hagar (defendant) refused and rejected a proposed compromise carving out her own share. The siblings sued, claiming state law entitled them to sell their interest in the property's development rights; the lower court held development rights were not real property at all and denied the claim on that ground.