Base Fee

A fee which has a qualification annexed to it, and which must be determined whenever the annexed qualification requires. A grant to A. and his heirs, tenants of Dale, continues only while they are such tenants. 2 Bl. Comm. 109. The proprietor of such a fee has all the rights of the owner of a fee simple until his estate is determined. Plowd. 557; -.1 Washb. Real Prop. 62; 1 Prest. Est. 431; Co. Litt. lb. One of the peculiarities of a base or determinable fee is that it may become a fee simple absolute on the happening of any event which renders impossible the event or combination of events upon which such an estate is to end. It is the uncertainty of the event, and the possibility that the fee may not last forever, that renders a base or determinable estate a fee, and not merely a freehold. BASE INFEFTMENT (Scotch). A disposition of land by a vassal, to be held of himself.

A fee which has a qualification annexed to it, and which must be determined whenever the annexed qualification requires. A grant to A and his heirs, tenants of Dale, continues only while they are such tenants; 2 Bla. Com. 109. See Wiggins Ferry Co. v. R. Co., 91 111. 93. The proprietor of such a fee has all the rights of the owner of a fee-simple until his estate is determined. Plowd. 557; 1 Washb. R. P. 62; 1 Prest. Est. 431; Co. Litt 1 b. and were performed by tin and those of servile rank. 2 Bla. Cum. Washb. R. P. 25.

In English law. An estate or fee which has a qualification subjoined thereto, and which must be determined whenever the qualification annexed to it is at an end. 2 Bl. Comm. 109. Wiggins Ferry Co v. Railroad Co., 94 111. 93; Camp Meeting Ass'n v. East Lyme, 54 Co.nn. 152, 5 Atl.1 849.

Defined under Base in Black's Law Dictionary.

1. A fee with a qualification; determinable upon some collateral event. 2. A tenure in fee at the wiU of the lord. Base tenure: by base services, as by villenage or customary services.

In English law. An estate or fee which has a qualification subjoined thereto, and which must be determined whenever the qualification annexed to it is at an end. As in the case of a grant to A. and his heirs, tenants of the inanor of Dale; in this instance whenever the heirs of A. cease to be tenants of that manor, the grant is entirely defeated. This kind of estate is a fee simple, because it is limited to the heirs general, and may by possibility endure forever, yet, as that duration depends upon the concurrence of collateral circumstances, which qualify and debase the purity of the donation, it is therefore not an absolute but a qualified, or base fee. 2 BL Com. 109, 110. 1 Steph. Com. 225. A tenure in fee at the will of the lord. See Base estate, Base tenant. To hold in fee base, is to hold at the will of the lord. Termes de la ley. Cowell,