Donis Conditionalibus, Statute De - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition donis-conditionalibus-statute-de

Definition :

Donis conditionalibus, Statute de (13 Edw. 1, c. 1, A.D. 1285), otherwise called Westminster the Second. At the date of this statute a gift to a man and the heirs of his body, provided that if he had no heirs the lands should revert, was construed to give the donee a conditional fee, which enabled him, after issue begotten, to alien the land, and thereby to disinherit the issue and to deprive the donor of his right of reverter. This interpretation is declared by this statute to be 'contrary to the minds of the giver, and the form impressed in the gift': wherefore it is ordained that the 'will of the giver, according to the form in the deed of gift manifestly expressed, be henceforth observed; so that they, to whom the land is given under such condition, shall have no power to alien the land so given, but that it shall remain unto the issue of them to whom it is given after their death, or shall revert to the giver or his heirs if issue fail, or there is no issue at all . . . And if a fine be levied hereafter upon land so given, it shall be void in law.'

The intolerable mischief introduced by this statute, viz., the creation of inalienable estates tail, was got rid of by the fictitious proceedings of common recoveries, which were abolished by the Fines and Recoveries Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 74), which substituted an enrolled deed as the mode of barring an estate tail. Enrolment is not necessary, see Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 133. See Challis's Real Property. See TAIL.