Tail

See Entail; Fee-tail. Estate tail signifies an estate of inheritance, descendible to some particular heirs only of the person to whom it is granted, in general — >.c. without distinction — of the person to whom it is granted. An estate tail is of two kinds, general and special. When lands are given to a man and the heirs of his body, without any further restriction, this is called an estate tail general; because, how often soever such donee in tail be married, his issue by every such marriage is capable of inheriting the estate tail. But if the gift is restrained or limited to certain heirs of the donee's body, exclusively of otiiers, as in the case of lands being given to a man and the heirs of his body on Mary his present wife to be begotten, this is an estate tail special, because the issue of the donee by any other wife is excluded. Estates tail are also distinguished into estates tail male and estates tail female. When lands are given to a person and the heirs male of his or her body, this is called an estate tail male, and to which the female heirs are not capable of inheriting. On the other hand, when lands are given to a person and the heirs female of his or her body, this is called an estate tail female, and to which the male heirs are not capable of inheriting. The person who holds an estate tail is termed a tenant in tail. And when a person grants land to a man and his particular heirs in the manner above described (i.e. when lie creates an estate tail), such person is said to entail his lands. Broum, Tail, or fee-tail, is from the French tailler, to cut; either because the heirs general are by this means cut off, or because this estate is a part cut out of the whole. An estate in fee-tail is a limited fee, as opjjosed to a fee-simple. It is that inheritance whereof a man is seised to him and the heirs of his body, begotten or to be begotten, limited at the will of the donor. He that giveth lands in tail is called the donor; and he to whom the gift is made, the donee. (/.{«. § 18.) Estates in fee-tail are the offspring of the conditional fees at common law. Before the statute de donis, if lands were given to a man and the heirs of his body, it was interpreted to be a fee-simple presently by the gift, upon condition that he had issue; and if he had issue, the condition was supposed to be performed for three purposes; viz., to alien and disinherit the issue, and liy the alienation to bar the donor or his heirs of all possibility of the reversion; to forfeit the estate for treason or felony; and to charge it with rent, &c. But, by the statute de donis, the will and intention of the donor is to be observed; as that the tenant in tail shall not alien after issue had, or before, or forfeit or charge the lands longer than for his own life, &c., and the estate shall remain to the issue of the donee, or to the donor or his heirs, where there is no issue; so that whereas the donee had a fee-simple before, now he has but an estate tail, and the donor a reversion in fee expectant upon that estate tail. {Co. tinct. This estate arises out of a special entail, when the express condition has become impossible by reason of death. Thus, if an estate is granted to husband and wife and their issue, and if either of them dies without their having issue, the survivor is tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct; for it has become impossible that there should be such issue as will satisfy the entail. Only a donee in tail special can become such a tenant; if the entail is general, such a tenancy can never arise; for while he lives he may have issue, the law not admitting the impossibility of having children at any age. This estate is, in substance, a life-estate.

Tail general

Is where an estate is limited to a man and the heirs of his body, without any restriction at all; or, according to some authorities, with no other restriction than that in relation to sex. Thus tail male general is the same thing as tail male; the word general, in such case, implying that there is no other restriction upon the descent of the estate than that it must go in the male line. So an estate in tail female general is an estate in tail female. The word general, in the phrase, expresses a purely negative idea, and may denote the absence of any restriction, or the absence of some given restriction which is tacitly understood. Mozley ^- W. Tail special, is defined by Cowel as the limitation of lands and tenements to a man and his wife and the heirs of their two bodies. But the phrase need not be thus restricted. Tail special, in its largest sense, is where the gift is restrained to certain heirs of the donor's body, and does not go to all of them in general. Modeu SrW.