Also known as: fee simple conditionals · conditional fee simple
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate in land created by a conveyance that limits succession to the grantee's issue. The estate remains subject to a condition until the required issue is born, at which point the holder's inter vivos powers of alienation become equivalent to those of a fee simple absolute owner.
Farid Farahani and Felicity French received a parcel from a grantor under language that created fee simple conditional estates in each. They took title expressly as tenants in common. Farid later sought to partition the land by sale to liquidate his share for unrelated business needs. The court recognized his power to compel partition because the concurrent form satisfied the requirements for such estates.
Fumiko Fujimoto conveyed land to Francesca Fowler for life with further language directing the remainder to Francesca's issue upon her death. The conveyance satisfied the formal requirements for creating a fee simple conditional in Francesca's issue. When Francesca later bore a child, the condition was met and her powers expanded. She then executed a long-term lease that bound successors.
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Frank Fisher and Forrest Falconer, husband and wife, received title under a conveyance that named them and their issue as holders of fee simple conditional estates. State law permitted tenancy by the entirety for such grants when the spouses and their issue were the designated beneficiaries. After the birth of their child the couple executed a mortgage on the parcel. The lender's interest was upheld because the concurrent form was validly created.
The holder gains that power once the required issue is born. Before birth the estate remains subject to the condition and the holder's inter vivos transfers cannot cut off the grantor's reversionary interest. After birth the condition is satisfied and the holder may create any interest a fee simple absolute owner could create.
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Yes. A state that recognizes fee simple conditional estates permits them to be created in two or more persons as tenants in common. Each cotenant then possesses the same partition rights that fee simple absolute owners enjoy in that jurisdiction.
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Yes, subject only to the duty not to commit waste. The present holder may develop or lease the land in ways that preserve or enhance its value. A future interest holder cannot enjoin ordinary development merely because the condition remains unsatisfied.
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Yes, when the jurisdiction allows tenancy by the entirety and the conveyance names the spouses together with their issue or a designated class of issue. The estate then carries the incidents of entirety ownership, including protection from unilateral partition during the marriage.
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…See 27 Fed.Cl. at 71 n. 3. [^maj-8]: At common law, only the estate in fee simple, the estate tail (earlier, the estate in fee simple conditional), and the estate for life were deemed freehold estates, created by feoffment with livery of seisin. [^maj-9]: See, e.g., 7 Thompson On Real Property § 60.02(c), (d) (David A. Thomas ed.,…