Legal Definitions - fee tail

A fee tail was a historical type of land ownership that placed significant restrictions on who could inherit a property. Unlike modern forms of ownership where an owner typically has the freedom to sell, mortgage, or bequeath their land to anyone, a fee tail legally mandated that the property *must* pass down through a specific line of descendants, usually the original owner's biological children, and then their children, and so on, for generations. The primary purpose was often to keep land within a particular family or lineage indefinitely.

This type of ownership was typically created using specific language in a deed or will, such as "to [Name] and the heirs of his body." However, because fee tails made land difficult to sell, develop, or manage efficiently, and often led to complex legal disputes, most jurisdictions in the United States have abolished them. Today, if a legal document uses language that historically would have created a fee tail, it generally results in a fee simple, which grants full and unrestricted ownership of the land.

Here are some examples to illustrate the concept of a fee tail:

• Example 1 (Historical Creation): Imagine a wealthy patriarch in 17th-century England who owned a vast estate called "Willow Creek." To ensure the property remained within his direct bloodline for centuries, he might have stipulated in his will, "I grant Willow Creek to my son, Edward, and the heirs of his body." Under a fee tail, Edward could live on and manage Willow Creek, but he would not have the legal right to sell it, give it away to a friend, or leave it to his wife's family. Upon Edward's death, the estate would automatically pass to his eldest child, and then to that child's eldest child, and so forth, as long as that direct lineage continued.

  Explanation: This illustrates a fee tail because the property's inheritance is strictly limited to a specific line of descendants, preventing the current owner from freely disposing of the land outside that designated lineage.

• Example 2 (Modern Abolition): Sarah inherits a family farm in a state where fee tails have been abolished. Her great-grandmother's will, written in 1910, contained the phrase, "I grant my farm, 'Sunny Meadow,' to my daughter, Eleanor, and the heirs of her body." If this will were interpreted today, despite the historical language, Sarah would likely own Sunny Meadow in fee simple. This means she has complete ownership rights: she can sell the farm to a developer, take out a mortgage on it, or leave it to her chosen beneficiaries in her own will, without being restricted to passing it only to her direct biological descendants.

  Explanation: This example demonstrates how, in most modern jurisdictions, language that historically created a fee tail now grants full, unrestricted ownership (fee simple) due to the legal abolition of fee tails.

• Example 3 (Conversion by Statute): In a state that once recognized existing fee tails but later adopted a "disentailing statute," consider the "Old Orchard Property." The property was originally granted in 1880 "to Charles and the heirs of his body." For several generations, the property was indeed passed down this specific family line. However, in 1960, the state passed a law converting all existing fee tails into fee simple estates upon the next transfer. When the current owner, David (a direct descendant of Charles), decided to sell the Old Orchard Property to a non-family buyer in 2015, the sale effectively converted his interest from a fee tail into a fee simple, allowing him to transfer full, unencumbered ownership to the buyer, free from the ancestral inheritance restrictions.

  Explanation: This shows how a fee tail, even if it existed for a period, could be legally transformed into a fee simple by modern legislation, thereby freeing the property from its generational inheritance limitations.