When any real property is conveyed or devised to any person, and no words of limitation are used in the conveyance or devise, such conveyance or devise shall be construed to pass the fee simple, or the whole estate or interest, legal or equitable, which the testator or grantor had power to dispose of, in such real property, unless a contrary intention shall appear in the conveyance or will.
W. Va. Code § 36-1-11
Fee simple may be created without words of limitation
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case 223 W. Va. 769 - Zimmerer v. Romano (2009)
Most recently applied in Gastar Exploration and Rona Lee McCardle v. Gary Rine, Administrator, etc. (October 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: West Virginia Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain West Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.