Also known as: fee simple interests · fee simple
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate in land of potentially infinite duration inheritable by the grantee's heirs at death.
Felicity French conveyed coastal land to Fernando Farrell using language granting the property to him and his heirs but providing that title would shift to Frontier Capital if the land ceased to be used for maritime storage. Fernando operated the storage facility for several years. When he later converted the property to residential condominiums, Frontier Capital asserted its executory interest and took possession.
Farah Fox purchased two beachfront parcels in fee simple interest and planned to build homes on them. State coastal regulations then barred all construction, leaving the lots without any economically beneficial use. Farah sued the state claiming a taking of her fee simple interest.
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Francisco Frost held a fee simple interest in farmland and died intestate survived only by collateral relatives. The probate court determined that the fee simple interest passed to those collateral heirs under the state's intestacy statute rather than escheating to the state.
Flora Ford conveyed her residence to her niece Farah Fox for life with no words of inheritance. Farah occupied the home and later attempted to mortgage the entire property. The lender refused because Farah held only a life estate rather than a fee simple interest.
A city conveyed a public pool to a private operator in fee simple interest subject to a requirement that the facility remain open to all residents. When the operator later closed the pool, the city sought to reclaim the property, asserting that the fee simple interest had terminated.
The United States granted a railroad a strip of land for track purposes. After the railroad abandoned the line, adjacent owners claimed the strip reverted to them because the original grant conveyed only an easement rather than a fee simple interest.
A fee simple interest lasts potentially forever and passes to heirs at the owner's death. A life estate ends with the measuring life and does not pass by inheritance.
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Yes. The holder may transfer the fee simple interest by deed during life.
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No. A fee simple interest may be subject to a special limitation, condition subsequent, or executory limitation that causes it to end automatically or upon election when a stated event occurs.
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Courts recognize a fee simple interest as a historically protected estate. When regulation eliminates all economically beneficial use of land held in fee simple, the owner may have a per se taking claim.
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…of) value. In any event, we avoid this difficulty in the present case, since the "interest in land" that Lucas has pleaded (a fee simple interest) is an estate with a rich tradition of protection at common law, and since the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas found that the Beachfront Management Act left each of Lucas's beachfront…