Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Vest

To give an immediate, fixed right of present or future enjoyment.

The term vest is significant in the law, because it means that a person has an absolute right to some present or future interest in something of value. When a right has vested, the person is legally entitled to what has been promised and may seek relief in court if the benefit is not given.

In U.S. PROPERTY LAW a vested remainder is a future interest held by an identifiable person (the remainderman), which, upon the happening of a certain event, will become the remainderman's. When property is given to one person for life and, at the person's death, the property is to go to another living person, this second person has a vested remainder in the property.

A vested legacy is an inheritance given in such terms that there is a fixed, irrevocable right to its...