abeyance

1. (law) Expectancy; a condition when an ownership of real property is undetermined; lapse in succession of ownership of estate, or title.Examples: "The proceeds of the estate shall be held in abeyance in an escrow account until the minor reaches age twenty-one."; "Yet sometimes the fee may be in abeyance, that is (as the word signifies) in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation in law; there being no person in esse, in whom it can vest and abide […]"; "Note: Under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 all territorial claims are held under abeyance in the interest of international co-operation for scientific purposes."countableuncountable