Also known as:absolute powers of ownership · absolute ownership
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A present interest in property that is unlimited in duration. The holder may alienate the property freely and create any lesser estate that a fee simple absolute owner could create. Once the interest ripens, no future interest follows it.
Sources & Authorities
How it applies
Common Examples
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Conditional Fee Ripens to Full Ownership
Grant received land under a deed creating a fee simple conditional so long as she had a direct descendant. After giving birth to a daughter, Grant conveyed the parcel by warranty deed to Blue Logic for equity in a data-center project. Blue Logic treated its interest as equivalent to absolute ownership and began site preparation. Clifford, the original grantor's heir, recorded a claim asserting a surviving reversion, but the birth of issue had already conferred on Grant the full power to transfer any interest an absolute owner could create.
Finder Holds Property Against All but Owner
A chimney-sweeper's boy found a jewel and took it to a goldsmith's shop. The apprentice removed the stones and offered only three halfpence for the socket. The boy refused and demanded the jewel returned. The court held that the finder possessed sufficient property in the jewel to maintain trover against everyone except the true owner, illustrating the practical incidents of absolute ownership short of title.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Restatements
Hornbooks
Armory v. Delamirie1 Strange 505
Flooding Destroys Absolute Ownership
A landowner held a fee simple absolute in marshland used for farming. A dam constructed by a canal company caused permanent flooding that rendered the land unusable. The owner sued for a taking. The Supreme Court recognized that the flooding had deprived the owner of the full rights of possession and use that define absolute ownership, entitling the owner to compensation.
Pumpelly v. Green Bay Co.80 U.S. 166
Finder of Lost Property Claims Possession
A soldier billeted in a house found a brooch hidden in a crevice. The house owner had never discovered it. The court awarded the brooch to the finder rather than the owner of the premises. The decision rested on the finder's superior possessory rights against all but the true owner, a core attribute of absolute ownership.
Hannah v. Peel[1945] K.B. 509
Street Opening Takes Railroad Right of Way
A city opened a street across a railroad's right of way. The railroad claimed the taking destroyed its absolute ownership of the strip. The Supreme Court held that compensation must reflect the value of the land taken for the new public use, confirming that even a railroad's fee interest carries the incidents of absolute ownership subject only to eminent domain.
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. v. City of Chicago166 U.S. 226, 239, 17 S.Ct. 581, 585, 41 L.Ed. 979 (1897)
Coastal Regulation Eliminates All Value
A developer purchased beachfront lots zoned for residential construction. A new state statute barred all permanent habitable structures on the lots. The Supreme Court held that the regulation deprived the owner of all economically beneficial use, effectively eliminating the absolute ownership rights that had existed when the land was purchased.
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council505 U.S. 1003 (1992)
Common questions
Frequently Asked
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What distinguishes absolute ownership from a defeasible fee?+
Absolute ownership is unlimited in duration and is never followed by a future interest. A defeasible fee, by contrast, is subject to an express condition or limitation that may cause the estate to end automatically or upon the occurrence of a stated event.
Supporting sources
Does the birth of issue convert a fee simple conditional into absolute ownership?+
Yes. Once the required issue is born, the holder gains both the privilege and the power to convey any interest that a fee simple absolute owner could create, including a full fee simple absolute to a third party.
Supporting sources
Can a will's precatory language limit an otherwise absolute grant?+
No. Language such as 'in full ownership, with the hope that' creates a fee simple absolute. Precatory words express a wish but do not impose a condition that cuts short the estate's duration.
Supporting sources
505 U.S. 1003 (1992)Property
…"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…