Also known as: feuda talliata · fee tail · entail
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate in land limited to a designated person and the heirs of that person's body. The estate passes only to lineal descendants and cannot be devised by will.
Freya Freeman conveyed her farm to her daughter Fiona for life, with further language directing the land to Fiona's issue upon Fiona's death. The conveyance created a fee tail in Fiona's issue under the applicable Restatement rule because it limited an estate for life and added language creating an estate in the same land for a designated class of issue.
Forrest Falconer received a conveyance of woodland that used the classic words creating a fee tail. In a jurisdiction where the Statute De Donis remained in force without fundamental modification, the deed produced an estate in fee tail in Forrest.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Floyd Franklin held a fee tail in pastureland. He executed an inter vivos conveyance that satisfied the special formalities required in his state for a disentailing deed and thereby transferred a fee simple absolute to the grantee.
Francesca Fiore held a fee tail in a lakeside parcel. She conveyed a life estate to a purchaser without using the required disentailing formalities. The purchaser's interest could be defeated upon Francesca's death by the persons entitled under the original limitation.
Faith Fitzgerald held a fee tail in a commercial building. Her will purported to devise the building to a charity. The attempted devise had no effect because a tenant in fee tail lacks power to devise any interest in the land.
After the death of a tenant in fee tail, the surviving spouse claimed curtesy in the land. The claim was subordinate to any remainder limited upon the estate in fee tail.
A statute may convert the former fee tail into a life estate in the first taker with a fee simple absolute in that person's issue. The statute preserves the form of the limitation only to identify the first donee in tail and vests the fee simple directly in the issue.
The child qualifies as issue under the form of the gift. Title therefore passes to the child in fee simple and defeats any alternative executory interest conditioned on dying without such heirs.
No. The statute converts the fee-tail language into a fee simple absolute in the issue, so the life tenant never holds the fee and cannot encumber it beyond the life estate.
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