CONDITIONAL FEE, in common law, an estate or property granted to a man and to the heirs of his body, or to the heirs male of his body. As developed in English law, it was called a conditional fee by reason of the condition expressed or implied in the donation of it, that if the donee died without such particular heirs, the land should revert to the donor. In other words it was a fee simple on condition that the donee had issue, and as soon as such issue was born, the estate was supposed to be come absolute by the performance of the condition. A conditional fee was converted by the statute De Donis Conditioncalibus into an estate tail (see ENTAIL; LAWS OF REAL PROPERTY).