Also known as: full ownerships · absolute ownership · complete ownership
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A present interest in property that is unlimited in duration and free from restraints on alienation. The interest carries full rights of possession, use, and transfer without conditions that would reduce it to a lesser estate or impose disabling restrictions.
Diego receives shares in a startup under a will that attempts to bar any sale or pledge forever. The court strikes the restraint as invalid. Diego holds the shares with complete rights to possess, use, and transfer them at any time.
A settlor transfers stock to a trustee while retaining a life interest and a power to revoke. The arrangement leaves the beneficiaries with an interest that can be reached by creditors because the settlor retained too many controls. The beneficiaries lack full ownership during the settlor's life.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A county enacts an ordinance that prevents a church from using its land for any purpose for an extended period. The regulation converts the church's interest from full ownership into a temporary right of use only. Compensation is measured by the principles that govern temporary takings.
A state statute forbids the shipment of minnows out of state after they are caught. The restriction prevents owners from exercising the full rights of possession and sale that accompany ownership. The law is struck down as an undue burden on interstate commerce.
A city condemns a strip of railroad land for a street. The taking converts the railroad's fee simple absolute into a right to compensation measured by the value of the full ownership interest that was acquired.
A dam raises water levels and permanently submerges a landowner's property. The flooding eliminates the owner's ability to use or possess the land. The owner recovers damages measured by the loss of the full ownership interest.
Full ownership is an interest unlimited in duration and free of conditions that would cause automatic termination or divestment. A defeasible fee ends or may be divested upon the occurrence of a stated event, so the holder never possesses the complete bundle of rights that accompany full ownership.
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No. An absolute and perpetual restraint on alienation is invalid. The donee receives the property interest free of the restraint and therefore holds full ownership with the power to transfer.
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Full ownership continues indefinitely and passes to heirs or devisees. A life estate ends at the death of the measuring life and therefore lacks the unlimited duration that defines full ownership.
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A lifetime gift is treated as an advancement only when the decedent executes a contemporaneous signed writing declaring that the transfer is to be charged against the heir's intestate share. Without such a writing the gift does not reduce the heir's later receipt of full ownership interests through intestacy.
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…"Nor can it make any difference that the right is purchased previous to the passage of the by-law," for "[e]very right, from an absolute ownership in property, down to a mere easement, is purchased and holden subject to the restriction, that it shall be so exercised as not to injure others. Though, at the time, it be remote and…