Also known as: in feodo simplici · fee simple
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A conveyance granting land to a person and the heirs of that person creates an estate of potentially infinite duration inheritable by lineal and collateral heirs alike. The phrase supplies classic words of limitation that pass the largest estate known to the law unless the instrument expressly creates a lesser interest or imposes a defeasible limitation. No fixed termination or condition precedent appears in the grant itself.
David conveyed his coastal cottage to his daughter Hugh using language granting the property to Hugh and her heirs in perpetuity but adding a gift over to his maritime company if Hugh died without surviving descendants. Hugh later sold the cottage to Caleb. Upon Hugh's death without descendants the executory limitation shifted title to the company rather than allowing passage through collateral heirs.
Lord Fairfax received letters patent conveying the entire Northern Neck territory to the patentees their heirs and assigns forever. The estate descended through successive generations of heirs including collateral relatives. The language established an inheritable fee that continued indefinitely absent any limiting condition.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The United States granted a strip of land to a railroad company in language creating a fee simple estate for railroad purposes. When the railroad abandoned the line decades later the original grantor's successors asserted that the estate ended. The court examined whether the original conveyance had created a fee simple or a mere easement.
A Cuban bank held fee simple title to sugar plantations under Cuban law. After expropriation the bank sued in New York to recover proceeds from sugar sales. The court considered whether the original fee simple estate survived the change in sovereignty.
Weedon held a life estate in Mississippi farmland while her grandchildren held remainder interests. Weedon petitioned to sell the entire property to pay for medical care. The court determined whether the remaindermen held a fee simple subject to the life estate or some other interest.
The City of Chicago condemned a strip of land owned by the railroad company for street widening. The company claimed the taking violated due process because the original grant had created only a limited estate. The court examined whether the railroad held fee simple title subject to the city's power of eminent domain.
The phrase supplies classic words of limitation that create a fee simple absolute. The estate may endure indefinitely and passes to the grantee's heirs including collateral relatives.
No. The opening language still creates a fee simple estate. Any subsequent special limitation condition subsequent or executory limitation merely renders the fee simple defeasible rather than absolute.
Yes. The corporation holds a fee simple estate. Language such as heirs of its body becomes ineffective because a corporation cannot have bodily issue yet the base grant still passes full ownership rights.
The phrase in feodo simpliciter alone creates an absolute or defeasible fee simple. Fee simple conditional language such as heirs of the body restricts inheritance to lineal descendants and historically created a distinct estate of potentially infinite duration.
…of) value. In any event, we avoid this difficulty in the present case, since the "interest in land" that Lucas has pleaded (a fee simple interest) is an estate with a rich tradition of protection at common law, and since the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas found that the Beachfront Management Act left each of Lucas's…