Definition
A condition in deed is an express condition — one stated explicitly in the instrument itself — attached to a feoffment, lease, grant, or other conveyance of property at the time of its creation. The condition operates to qualify the grantee's interest: upon occurrence or non-occurrence of the specified event, the grantor (or a third party entitled to enforce the condition) may exercise a right of entry or re-entry, effectively defeasating the conveyance. The classic example is a feoffment or lease reserving a rent payable on a fixed day, accompanied by a proviso that if the rent goes unpaid, the feoffor or lessor may re-enter. The condition is inherent in and inseparable from the deed that creates the interest.
The term stands in contrast to a condition implied by law — one that courts read into a transaction without explicit language in the instrument.
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Common Confusion
Condition in deed vs. condition in law. A condition in deed arises from language expressly inserted in the creating instrument. A condition in law is implied by operation of law from the nature of the transaction, without any express words. The distinction matters both for enforcement and for the nature of the interest created: courts have historically been stricter about allowing re-entry on an express condition, and the technical requirements for satisfaction or breach may differ. Researchers consulting older sources should take care not to read "condition in deed" as merely meaning "a condition found somewhere in a deed" — the phrase carries the specific technical sense of an expressly stated, operative condition as opposed to a legally implied one.
Condition in deed vs. covenant. A breach of a covenant traditionally gave rise to an action for damages; a breach of a condition gave the grantor a right of re-entry. Older instruments sometimes blend the two, and courts have had to determine which legal consequence the parties intended.
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Why It Matters in Research
This is a term rooted in the feudal conveyancing vocabulary of English common law and appears most densely in sources from the medieval period through the nineteenth century. Researchers working in early American property law, colonial land grants, or any materials drawing on Bracton, Littleton, or Coke will encounter it regularly. Several research traps apply.
First, the phrase appears in highly compressed forms in older sources. Burrill's entry trails off mid-sentence, which is itself a reminder that the historical dictionaries were working from a tradition that assumed readers already understood the feudal conveyancing framework. The term will rarely be defined in context when encountered in primary sources — it is used as a term of art, not explained.
Second, the practical significance of the condition in deed / condition in law distinction has shifted across time and jurisdiction. In early modern English law the distinction carried significant procedural consequences for how a grantor could enforce re-entry. In American property law, much of this formal architecture was modified by recording acts, statutory conditions, and the eventual displacement of fee simple defeasible doctrine in some jurisdictions. A researcher applying nineteenth-century sources to twentieth-century problems should verify whether the jurisdiction has preserved or modified the common law re-entry framework.
Third, the connection to mortgage law is substantive, not merely analogical. The deed of trust structure — in which the borrower conveys title to a trustee subject to an express condition that the conveyance be voided upon repayment — is a direct descendant of the conditional conveyance concept. Modern deeds of trust contain express conditions governing default, acceleration, and trustee's sale that function as conditions in deed in the historical sense. Researchers moving between historical sources on conditional estates and modern mortgage documents will find the conceptual lineage directly relevant.
Fourth, "dition in deed" as a search string in corpus materials may reflect a historical orthographic variant or a truncation artifact. Searches should include "condition in deed," "conditio expressa," and variants of "proviso" in combination with re-entry language to capture the full range of relevant sources.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the core entry, identifying a condition in deed as a conditio expressa — a condition expressed in the creating deed — and cross-references Crabb's Real Property and Bracton. The Bracton reference (fol. 47) situates the concept firmly in the foundational English common law tradition; Bracton was writing in the mid-thirteenth century, and the concept of the express condition on a feoffment was already sufficiently settled to warrant systematic treatment. Crabb's Real Property is a nineteenth-century English treatise and Burrill's citation to § 2127 places this in the doctrinal treatment of conditions in estates generally.
Termes de la Ley, one of the earliest English legal glossaries (with editions running from the sixteenth century onward), is cited by Burrill as a source for the definition — confirming that this was established legal vocabulary well before the modern period. The convergence across Bracton, Termes de la Ley, and Crabb signals a term with deep roots and long continuity in the English property law tradition.
What the historical sources do not address: the interaction of conditions in deed with American recording acts, the effect of statutory modification of re-entry rights, or the evolution of the concept into modern deed-of-trust and mortgage practice. These gaps must be filled from American treatises and case law rather than from the English dictionary tradition.
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Jurisdictional Note
The common law condition in deed framework was received into American property law generally, but the procedural mechanisms for enforcing re-entry were modified by statute in most states. Some jurisdictions abolished or restricted self-help re-entry; others converted the right into a judicial action for forfeiture or ejectment. The practical operation of express conditions in deeds therefore varies by state, and historical sources describing the common law rule may not accurately describe current enforcement mechanisms.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia — Mortgages: Promissory Note and Deed of Trust. The deed of trust structure uses express conditions in the conveyancing instrument to govern default and reconveyance, making this the closest modern analog to the historical condition in deed in active doctrinal use.
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