Definition
R.L. is an abbreviation for the Law French phrase "sans impeachment de waste" — or, in its Latin form, *absque impetitione vasti* — meaning "without impeachment of waste." The abbreviation appears in older legal texts and case reports as a shorthand notation indicating that a tenant (typically a tenant for life) holds an estate free from liability for waste. A tenant holding land "R.L." could alter, exploit, or consume the property without being subject to an action by the remainderman or reversioner for the damage caused.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are unlikely to encounter "R.L." as a stand-alone entry in modern legal materials. It surfaces almost exclusively in historical English real property records, conveyancing instruments, and early American treatises that borrowed heavily from English land law. Because it is an abbreviation of a Law French phrase, it is easy to overlook or misread in manuscript sources or early printed reports. A researcher encountering "R.L." in a deed, settlement, or legal opinion from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries should treat it as a signal to consult the full doctrine under ABSQUE IMPETITIONE VASTI and to examine the broader context of the tenancy being described. The abbreviation does not appear in standard modern legal drafting; any modern instrument intending to excuse a life tenant from waste liability will use plain English or a statutory formulation rather than this shorthand.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary records R.L. with a terse entry — "Fr. Without impeachment of waste" — and cross-references Littleton's *Tenures* at section 152, the foundational English common law text on tenancy and its obligations. Black's correctly identifies the phrase as Law French in origin, though the substantive doctrine it describes is thoroughly developed in Latin-derived common law. The entry's brevity reflects that R.L. is purely a notational convenience; the legal content lives in the doctrine of waste and its exceptions, not in the abbreviation itself. Historical sources offer no variation on the meaning: wherever R.L. appears in this legal context, it consistently signals the waste-immunity clause.