- fee tail
-
n.A conveyance of property that establishes a specific line of succession, limiting the transfer of the property to a particular category of descendants of the recipient, and that goes back to the grantor if there are no suitable descendants; also called an estate tail.
The Essential Law Dictionary. — Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008.
- fee tail
-
A form of real estate ownership, now abolished, that required property to be passed only to the descendants of a certain person.This kept land in the family indefinitely.Category: Real Estate & Rental Property
Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. Gerald N. Hill, Kathleen Thompson Hill. 2009.
- fee tail
-
n. Archaic A fee estate granted to a particular individual and his or her specified heirs (typically direct issue, not collateral heirs) and that reverts if the individual dies without such heirs.
Webster's New World Law Dictionary. Susan Ellis Wild. 2000.
- fee tail
-
An estate in land subject to a restriction regarding inheritance.
Dictionary from West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005.
- fee tail
-
An estate in land subject to a restriction regarding inheritance.
Short Dictionary of (mostly American) Legal Terms and Abbreviations.
- fee tail
-
n.an old feudal expression for a title to real property which can only be passed to one's heirs "of his body" or certain heirs who are blood relatives. If the blood line ran out (no children) then the title would revert to the descendants of the lord who originally gave the land to the title-holding family. Thus, it could not be transferred to anyone outside the family. The intention was to keep lands within a family line and not subdivided. In 16th century England, trusts were established to get around this "restraint on alienation" so the land could be held in trust for another person to use. Fee tail is of historic and academic interest only.
Law dictionary. EdwART. 2013.