Also known as: entail · entails · entailed · entailing · entailment · entailed estate · fee tail · fee-tail
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A possessory estate in land limited to a grantee and the heirs of the grantee's body. The estate descends only to lineal descendants and cannot be devised by will.
Edgar Evers conveys Blackacre to his daughter Olivia for life with further language directing the land to her issue after her death. Under the applicable Restatement rule the conveyance creates an entailed estate in Olivia's lineal descendants rather than a fee simple. Olivia's children therefore hold the future interest that will become possessory upon her death.
Eileen Epstein receives a conveyance of Greenacre in a jurisdiction that still enforces the Statute De Donis without modification. The deed's language creates an entailed estate that passes only to her bodily heirs. Eileen holds the land subject to that limitation rather than full ownership.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Evelyn Ellison holds an entailed estate in Whiteacre. She executes an inter vivos conveyance that satisfies the state's required formalities for disentailing. The grantee receives the same interest that a fee simple owner could have transferred.
Ethan Evans holds an entailed estate in Blueacre in a jurisdiction where the disentailing formalities of section 79 do not apply. He conveys a life estate to a purchaser. The purchaser's interest ends upon Ethan's death when the remaindermen under the original limitation take possession.
Edith Eberhardt holds an entailed estate in Redacre. She attempts to leave the land to a favorite niece by will. The attempted devise fails because the holder of an entailed estate lacks power to dispose of the land by will.
Elise Everly holds an entailed estate in Yellowacre. Upon her death her surviving spouse claims curtesy. The spouse's interest is subordinate to any remainder limited after the entailed estate.
Under the common law such language created a fee tail. A state statute modeled on Restatement (First) of Property § 88 splits the interests so that the first taker receives only a life estate while the issue receive a fee simple absolute from the time of the conveyance.
The holder possesses the privilege and power to create any interest that a fee simple owner could create, provided the conveyance meets any required disentailing formalities of the situs state.
No. The holder has no power to devise any interest in land held in fee tail.
The surviving spouse receives the same dower or curtesy interest as if the deceased had held a fee simple, but that interest remains subordinate to any remainder limited upon the entailed estate.
…of Cleveland are deterred from buying any part of this land because of the existence of the ordinance and the necessity thereby entailed of conducting burdensome and expensive litigation in order to vindicate the right to use the land for lawful and legitimate purposes; that the ordinance constitutes a cloud upon the land,…