Also known as: fee simple · fee simple absolute
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate of potentially infinite duration that passes to the owner's heirs by intestacy or by will and may be freely transferred during life. The estate continues indefinitely unless conveyed away or until escheat occurs for want of heirs.
Indigo Textiles conveyed a factory parcel to Inertia Dynamics in fee simple "so long as the premises are used for manufacturing." Inertia Dynamics operated the plant for several years. When the company ceased manufacturing and converted the building to storage, the estate automatically ended and title returned to Indigo Textiles.
Virginia granted a large tract to Lord Culpepper in fee simple. After the Revolution the state asserted ownership. The Supreme Court held that the original grant had conveyed an inheritable and alienable estate that passed intact to Culpepper's successors.
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Roy testified that after an oral agreement with his brother he had farmed the land, maintained the fences, and treated the parcel as his own in fee simple terms. The court examined whether that conduct established full ownership rights.
Anna held a life estate in farmland while her grandchildren held the remainder. When Anna petitioned to sell the entire parcel, the court determined whether the life estate could be enlarged to fee simple by merger or by court order.
The city owned a public swimming pool in fee simple. After closing the facility the city refused to reopen it. The Supreme Court considered whether the closure violated equal-protection rights of users who had relied on continued operation.
The United States conveyed a strip of land to a railroad for a right-of-way. When the railroad abandoned the line, the adjacent fee owner claimed the strip in fee simple. The Supreme Court held that the original conveyance had created only an easement, so the strip reverted to the fee simple owner.
Modern statutes and presumptions treat a conveyance "to B" or "to B forever" as passing a fee simple absolute unless the instrument expressly states a lesser estate. Words of inheritance are no longer required.
Yes. A fee simple may be made defeasible by a special limitation, condition subsequent, or executory limitation. The estate remains a fee simple until the limiting event occurs and the future interest becomes possessory.
Yes. The spouse's share attaches to whatever estate the decedent held at death, including a fee simple determinable, but remains subject to any valid future interest retained by the grantor.
No. A disabling restraint that prevents the owner of a fee simple from conveying the land is void because the power to alienate is an integral part of the fee simple estate.
…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…