Also known as: absolute titles · clear title · perfect title
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An exclusive title to land that excludes all others not compatible with it. The holder possesses full rights of ownership, possession, and disposition without qualification from competing claims.
After Oscar's death, his son Zara received the press building by devise. Fair Channel foreclosed under the recorded mortgage power of sale. Duane purchased at auction and recorded the trustee's deed. Duane holds absolute title because the foreclosure transferred the property by operation of law free of Zara's interest.
Virginia patentees received a royal grant of an entire tract of land to them and their heirs forever. The grant included the power to alien the premises. Subsequent purchasers under the patentees asserted rights against later claimants. The original grant created absolute title in the patentees and their successors.
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A seller and buyer agreed that title to a cow would pass before delivery. The parties manifested clear intent that delivery was not a condition precedent. The buyer paid and took possession. Absolute title transferred upon the parties' agreement even without immediate manual delivery.
British property entered a U.S. port during war. The president declined to issue letters of marque. No statute expressly declared the property confiscated. Absolute title by confiscation did not vest until a sentence of condemnation issued.
A nonresident owned land in the forum state. The plaintiff served process by publication only. The court entered a default judgment affecting title. Absolute title could not pass because service failed to confer personal jurisdiction over the owner.
A testator devised land to a woman and the heirs of her body on her father's side. The will attempted to restrict inheritance to one parental line. The limitation failed to create a new form of inheritance. The devisee received absolute title in fee simple.
Absolute title excludes all incompatible claims and grants full rights of ownership and disposition. A defeasible fee remains subject to divestment upon a stated condition, so the holder lacks absolute title until the condition becomes impossible.
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Yes. Foreclosure is a transfer by operation of law that passes title without a deed from the prior owner. The purchaser at a valid foreclosure sale receives absolute title free of subordinate interests such as a later devise.
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No. A devise passes title at death but the recipient takes subject to any valid lien that existed at death. Foreclosure enforcing that lien can extinguish the devisee's interest and vest absolute title in the foreclosure purchaser.
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Recording supplies constructive notice and perfects title against subsequent claimants. A recorded trustee's deed after foreclosure gives the purchaser absolute title that prevails over unrecorded or subordinate interests.
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…were made to the crown including an annual rent in lieu of all services and a portion of gold and silver mines. To the absolute title and seisin in fee were superadded collateral powers of dominion, subject to the authority of Virginia over military concerns and taxation of inhabitants. Among the privileges granted was…