Also known as: general fees conditional · conditional fee simple · fee simple conditional
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate in land of potentially infinite duration created by a conveyance limiting succession to the issue of the grantee. The estate remains subject to divestment in favor of the grantor or a designated third party until the birth of issue satisfying the condition, after which the holder possesses full inter vivos powers of alienation equivalent to those of a fee simple absolute owner.
Grace Gupta and Gideon Graves received a parcel from their aunt under a deed creating a fee simple conditional in each as tenants in common. After Grace gave birth to twins satisfying the issue requirement, she conveyed her undivided interest to a developer. The developer took full title to that share because the birth of issue had enlarged Grace's inter vivos powers.
Gina Griffin conveyed land to her brother Glenn Gross for life with further language directing the property to Glenn's issue upon his death. Glenn later had a daughter. The conveyance created a fee simple conditional in favor of Glenn's issue once the life estate ended, because the instrument contained both a life limitation and language limiting a subsequent estate to the life tenant's issue.
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Gordon Gray and his wife received title under a deed granting the land to them as husband and wife and to their issue who enter the family business. After the birth of their first child, the spouses held the estate as tenants by the entirety because the jurisdiction permitted such concurrent ownership of fee simple conditional estates when the conveyance named a married couple and their issue.
The estate becomes fully alienable for inter vivos transfers once the grantee has the required issue. Before that event the holder cannot cut off the grantor's reversionary interest, but after the birth of issue the holder may convey any estate that a fee simple absolute owner could create.
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Yes. In jurisdictions recognizing fee simple conditional estates, such estates may be created to be held by two or more persons as tenants in common when the conveyance satisfies the requirements for creating the estate.
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The holder possesses the same general privilege to possess and use the land as a fee simple absolute owner, subject only to the duty not to commit waste that would unreasonably impair the future interest.
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Yes, but only when the jurisdiction permits tenancy by the entirety as a form of concurrent ownership and the conveyance is made to two persons who are husband and wife together with their issue or a designated class of issue.
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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.,…