Definition
"Of limitation" is a qualifying phrase that, when appended to a noun in legal usage, signals that the modified concept is bounded by a legally defined ceiling, period, or restricting condition. It does not stand alone as an independent legal term but functions as a modifier that fundamentally alters the character of the noun it follows.
The phrase appears most persistently in two recurring contexts:
1. Temporal context — "statute of limitations," "period of limitation," "time of limitation": A prescribed span of time within which a legal action must be commenced. Once that period expires, the right to sue is extinguished or, in some formulations, the remedy is barred while the underlying right persists.
2. Quantitative or qualitative context — "words of limitation," "covenant of limitation," "condition of limitation": Language in a deed, will, or instrument that defines the extent, duration, or scope of an estate or right granted. In property law, words of limitation are contrasted with words of purchase: words of purchase identify who takes the estate; words of limitation define how much of the estate they take and for how long.
These two uses share a common conceptual thread: the phrase marks something as restricted, bounded, or terminable rather than absolute and perpetual.
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Common Confusion
"Of limitation" is easily confused with "of restriction" or "of condition." In property law, the distinction is consequential. A limitation defines the natural endpoint of an estate — the estate simply expires when the limiting event occurs (as with a fee simple determinable, which terminates automatically upon the happening of the stated event). A condition creates a right in a third party to re-enter or enforce a forfeiture upon breach. The confusion between conditions and limitations has produced centuries of property litigation because the remedies and automatic-versus-triggered termination differ significantly.
In the temporal context, "of limitation" is sometimes confused with "of laches." Statutes of limitations are codified, fixed, and generally apply at law. Laches is an equitable doctrine based on unreasonable delay causing prejudice. The two can operate in the same factual landscape but are analytically distinct.
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Core Elements
In its property law application, the operative question whenever "of limitation" appears in a conveyancing instrument is:
- What event or condition defines the limit?
- Is the limitation temporal (a specific period), conditional (tied to an event), or absolute (never, as in a restraint on alienation, which raises its own enforceability questions)?
- Does the limitation run to a third party (possibility of reverter, right of entry) or revert to the grantor?
- Under what rule of construction does the jurisdiction interpret ambiguous limiting language — strictly against the grantor, strictly in favor of the grantee, or by the grantor's manifest intent?
In its statutory/procedural application, the core elements are the triggering date (when the limitations period begins to run), the length of the period, any tolling provisions (minority, fraud, discovery rule), and the consequence of expiration (jurisdictional bar versus affirmative defense).
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Why It Matters in Research
The phrase "of limitation" is a signal term that should prompt a researcher to ask: limitation on what, and by what mechanism? The answer varies dramatically depending on the legal domain.
In historical sources, "words of limitation" is a property-law term of art with specific technical content drawn from the common-law rules of estates. When reading older conveyances or treatises on real property, failing to recognize this phrase as a term of art — and instead reading it loosely as merely "restrictive language" — will cause misreading of the instrument's effect. The difference between "to A and his heirs" (words of limitation creating a fee simple in A) and "to A for life" (a life estate, also using words of limitation) is foundational.
In statutory research, "of limitation" appears in the titles and text of limitations statutes across all American jurisdictions. These statutes are not uniform. Researchers working across jurisdictions or across time periods must identify the specific statute, its effective dates, and any amendments — particularly amendments that changed the limitations period or the discovery rule.
Corpus researchers should note that historical dictionaries treat "of limitation" almost entirely through the property-law lens, with the statute-of-limitations context either addressed under a separate "LIMITATION" headword or assumed as background knowledge. Modern legal research has shifted the weight in the opposite direction: practitioners today encounter "of limitation" most often in procedural and statutory contexts. This inversion means that older secondary sources may be less useful for procedural questions and vice versa.
The phrase also appears in admiralty law, tax law (see the Pease limitation on itemized deductions, now suspended under federal law), and regulatory contexts — each with its own technical content. Do not assume uniformity across fields.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry for this phrase (under their broader treatment of property and inheritance concepts) reflects the classical common-law orientation of nineteenth-century American legal dictionaries. Their discussion of co-heirs and coparcenary — while not directly defining "of limitation" as a standalone term — illustrates the period's analytical framework: estates were carefully bounded by words that defined who took and what they took, and the phrase "of limitation" carried precise technical weight in that system.
What historical dictionaries generally do well here is the property-law dimension: the distinction between words of limitation and words of purchase, the significance of limiting language in fee simple, fee tail, and life estate contexts, and the role of limiting conditions in defeasible estates. What they do less well — or treat inconsistently — is the procedural statute-of-limitations usage, which by the nineteenth century was well established in American courts but often addressed in separate dictionary headwords rather than under "of limitation" as a phrase entry.
No historical dictionary entry reviewed here provides a unified account of "of limitation" as a cross-domain modifier. The synthesis of that account is a modern necessity.
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Jurisdictional Note
In property law, the technical force of words of limitation in conveyancing instruments varies with state law, particularly as applied to defeasible fees. Some states have modified or abolished the common-law distinction between fee simple determinable and fee simple subject to condition subsequent by statute. In the limitations context, period lengths, tolling rules, and the discovery rule vary substantially across jurisdictions and by cause of action within jurisdictions.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Phase-Outs and Limitations / Pease Limitation — Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia (tax_157)
Limitation of Liability — Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia (military_45)
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