World War I is over on "Downton Abbey," the PBS drama we have become mildly obsessed with. The family and servants of the country house are poised to enter a new era -- an era that is not new enough, though, when it comes to inheriting property. There are questions about the heir presumptive, and other developments have clouded his claim to the title. The only thing we know for sure is that no one can contest the entailment. The old Earl made sure of that.

We have reviewed a few concepts in this series. The Rule in Shelley's Case proved impenetrable and, fortunately, easily ignored. A fee tail or tail is more pertinent and a little easier to explain. The fee tail is the arrangement that allows the physical estate of Downton Abbey -- the land and all the appurtenances -- to pass intact to the next generation's heir, then his heir, and his heir, and so on.

This could not happen in Florida. It could not have happened here at the turn of the 20th Century or at the dawn of the Civil War. In 1829, the state outlawed entailed estates. The law now states that an implicitly or explicitly entailed estate will be treated as a life estate and a remainder. The life estate goes to the "first taker" -- say, the decedent's spouse or oldest child. The remainderman is the lineal descendant of the first taker.

If there is no remainderman, the estate reverts to the remainderman in the original will (or trust). If there still is not a remainderman, the estate reverts to the original owner or his heirs.

Between the statute and the Rule Against Perpetuities, the entailment that we see in Downton Abbey is simply not a possibility here. You could try it, but you'd never get away with it.

Ahh, the Rule Against Perpetuities ... an excellent subject for a post. Just not this one.

Source: Florida Statutes Annotated ยง 689.14 (Current through Chapter 236 (End) of the 2011 First Regular Session of the Twenty-Second Legislature), via Westlaw