Also known as: estates tail · estate in tail · estates in tail · fee tail · entail · estate in fee tail
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate of potentially infinite duration inheritable only by lineal issue of the grantee. The estate arises under conveyances using classic words of limitation such as to a named person and the heirs of that person's body when the Statute De Donis remains in force without fundamental statutory or judicial modification. The holder possesses both the privilege and power to alienate interests that a fee simple owner could create, subject to any applicable state requirements for a disentailing conveyance.
Emanuel Escobar and Edgar Evers received a single conveyance granting them an estate tail in a rural parcel. They took possession and began farming the land as co-owners with undivided interests. When Emanuel later attempted to mortgage his share, the lender examined the deed language and confirmed that the estate tail could validly exist in tenancy in common form.
Edith Eberhardt conveyed Blackacre to her son Ewan Eckhart for life with further language directing the land to Ewan's issue upon his death. The deed satisfied the formal requirements for creating an estate tail in favor of the son's lineal descendants. Ewan took possession and treated the property as subject to inheritance only by his children.
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Ethan Evans and his wife received a deed granting them an estate tail in their marital home together with their issue. State law permitted tenancy by the entirety for such estates when the grantees were husband and wife. The couple recorded the deed and held the property subject to the survivorship feature of entirety ownership.
Eduardo Enriquez inherited land under a conveyance that used the words to him and the heirs of his body. Because the state continued to enforce the Statute De Donis without modification, the deed created a true estate tail rather than a fee simple. Eduardo could not freely devise the land outside his lineal line.
Elysium Media held an estate tail in commercial acreage acquired through a prior family grant. The company executed an inter vivos deed that complied with the state's required formalities for disentailing. The buyer received a fee simple absolute free of the tail limitation.
Edgewater Capital received an estate tail in undeveloped lots under a conveyance that did not permit a full disentailing deed. The company granted a long-term lease to a developer. Upon the company's dissolution the lease terminated because the interest created could be defeated by the persons entitled under the original tail limitation.
An estate tail is created by an otherwise effective conveyance that first limits an estate for life and then adds language purporting to create a further estate in the same land in favor of the issue of the life tenant or a designated class of that issue.
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Yes. In states recognizing the estate, a conveyance can create an estate tail to be held by two or more persons as tenants in common when the statutory prerequisites are met.
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A tenant in tail may create any interest that a fee simple owner could create, provided the conveyance satisfies the special formalities required for a disentailing deed under state law.
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The tenant in tail may still create interests that a fee simple owner could create, but any such interest remains subject to defeat upon the tenant's death by the persons entitled under the original limitation.
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…the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail. Id. , at 335. Applying these factors to the present case, we conclude that the procedures established by the Secretary satisfy due process. The private interest that will be affected by…