6. The court should hold that the tenant has

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.

A judgment lien is a court ruling that gives a creditor the right to take possession of a debtor's real property if the debtor fails to fulfill his or her contractual obligations. A judgment lien may be made against an individual or business and allows the creditor to access the debtor's business, personal property, and real estate, among other assets, to pay the judgment. A plaintiff who obtains a monetary judgment is described as a «judgment creditor,» while the defendant becomes a «judgment debtor.»

The majority rule states that a plaintiff who obtains a judgment lien under this kind of statute is not protected by any recording acts from a prior unrecorded conveyance made by the defendant. This is because a plaintiff is not a bona fide purchaser, as he did not pay value for the judgment, or the judgment attaches only to property owned by the defendant and not the property the defendant has previously conveyed away, even if that conveyance was not recorded.

D is correct. When an estate is owned by two or more parties at once, a joint tenant or a tenant in common may encumber his or her own interest in the property, but may not encumber the other co-tenant's interest. Here, the brother and sister have a joint tenancy. The lien against the brother did not sever the joint tenancy when it was created. It did not encumber the sister's interest either. In the case of joint tenancy, the holder of the lien runs the risk that the brother will die before the holder can enforce the judgment because the death of the brother extinguishes the interest. For the holder to enforce the judgment, he can foreclose on the lien, the foreclosure sale would cause a severance of the joint tenancy, and he would receive the proceeds from the sale. However, if the brother dies before the lien is foreclosed on, the lien is extinguished with his death because it did not encumber the sister's interest.

When the brother dies, his interest in the property is extinguished, along with the lien. The sister is left the sole owner; her interest is increased to 100%. Her interest was also never affected by the brother's lien. She is not «subsequently acquir[ing]» the property; rather, the property is being freed from the brother's interest when he dies.

A is incorrect. As explained above, the brother's death destroyed his interest in the property, along with his lien. The sister was never bound by the lien on the brother, so the tenant does not have a lien on the entire property.

B is incorrect. Again, the death of the brother left the sister with complete ownership of Blackacre. There cannot be a lien on only the brother's share of Blackacre because his shares were extinguished by death.

C is incorrect. This is the correct conclusion with the wrong reasoning. There will be no lien on Blackacre because the lien was attached only to the brother. The sister's lack of notice of the lien is not what makes the lien unattached to her 100% interest in Blackacre.