38. Is the wife now the sole owner of the land?

The principal characteristic of a joint tenancy is the right of survivorship. Where two parties hold a property in joint tenancy and one dies, the decedent's interest in the property terminates and the survivor's interest is increased to 100%. Unless the right of survivorship is destroyed by law (such as a divorce decree in the case of married joint tenants, or when one joint tenant kills another to try to get a larger property interest) it can only be terminated in one of two ways: by partition or by severance. Where one joint tenant makes an inter vivos conveyance of their entire interest in the property, a severance occurs and the joint tenancy is destroyed. However, a joint tenant's interest cannot be devised in a will.

D is correct. When the husband executed a will devising the land to his best friend, and the husband subsequently died, the interest held by his wife (as a joint tenant with the right of survivorship that was not severed at any point) increased to 100% as the surviving joint tenant.

A is incorrect. Although a joint tenancy may be severed when one joint tenant transfers his interest to a third party, this may not be done by way of a will. Here, the husband's will devising the land to his best friend did not sever his joint tenancy with the wife, and when the husband died, her interest increased to 100%.

B is incorrect. Ademption is a common law doctrine applied in the law of wills to determine what happens when property bequeathed under a will is no longer in the testator's estate at the time of the testator's death. This does not apply here, where the husband died and left a will but had not lost his interest in the property. Rather, his death caused his wife to become the sole surviving joint tenant.

C is incorrect. This answer reaches the correct answer with the wrong reasoning. The wife is the sole owner, but not because of the doctrine of after-acquired title or estoppel by deed. That doctrine applies where an individual attempts to convey title (usually by warranty deed) at a time when the individual does not have title to the land but later acquires title to the land. Here, the wife will have already received a full ownership interest in the property under her right of survivorship.