FEE TAIL fee tail.

An estate that is heritable only by specified descendants of the original grantee, and that endures until its current holder dies without issue (e.g., to Albert and the heirs of his body). Most jurisdictions except Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have abolished the fee tail. Also termed entailed estate; estate tail; estate in tail; estate in fee tail; tenancy in tail; entail; feodum talliatum. See ENTAIL; TAIL. [Cases: Estates in Property 12. C.J.S. Estates 2227.] The old legal estate tail was throughout its history invariably associated with family settlements, and in particular with marriage settlements.... Medieval landowners sought to achieve [familial continuity and status] by perfecting a single estate which in itself would conform to three requirements: (1) While it should be an estate of inheritance it should devolve on lineal heirs only, and not on collaterals in other words that it should descend only to the heirs of the body of the first grantee. (2) As a corollary, the estate should be such that if at any time the first grantee's issue should fail the estate itself should come to an end and the land revert to the original settlor or his heirs. (3) No owner of the estate for the time being should have power to dispose of the land in such a way as to prevent it descending on his death to the next heir of the body of the original grantee. All this was attempted by limiting land, not to A and his heirs, which would give A a fee simple, but to A and the heirs of his body. 1 Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England 150 (L. Crispin Warmington ed., 21st ed. 1950). If we cannot resist the temptation to say that De Donis permitted the creation of tailor-made estates, we can at least argue that it is not a pun. Our word tailor and the word tail, as used in fee tail, come from the same source the French tailler, to cut. The word tail in fee tail has nothing to do with that which wags the dog. The estate in fee tail was a cut estate either cut in the sense that the collateral heirs were cut out, or cut in the sense that the estate was carved into a series of discrete life-possession periods to be enjoyed successively by A and his lineal heirs.... We know of no state in the United States that recognizes the estate in fee tail in its strict 12851472 form. Wherever it is recognized, the tenant in tail in possession may disentail it by simple deed. Thomas F. Bergin & Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future Interests 30, 32 (2d ed. 1984). fee tail general.A fee tail that is heritable by all of the property owner's issue by any spouse. Formerly, a grant to A and the heirs of his body created a fee tail general. fee tail special.A fee tail that restricts the eligibility of claimants by requiring a claimant to prove direct descent from the grantee and meet the special condition in the grant. For example, the words to A and the heirs of his body begotten on his wife Mary meant that only descendants of A and Mary could inherit; A's children by any other wife were excluded. An estate tail special could also be restricted to only male or only female descendants, as in to A and the heirs male of his body.