The Rule in Shelley’s Case is a common law doctrine governing the creation of future interests in real property. The rule provides that when a conveyance grants a life estate to a person and, in the same instrument, purports to grant a remainder to that person’s heirs (or heirs of the body), the term heirs is treated as a word of limitation rather than a word of purchase.
In effect, the rule merges the life estate and the remainder, giving the life tenant a larger estate, typically a fee simple or fee tail, rather than allowing the heirs to take a separate future interest. For example, if land is conveyed “to A for life, then to A’s heirs,” the Rule in Shelley’s Case vests a fee simple absolute in A, instead of creating a life estate in A and a remainder in A’s heirs.
The rule originated in Wolfe v. Shelley, 1 Co. Rep. 93b, 76 Eng. Rep. 206 (K.B. 1581), and was designed to preserve the free alienability of land and to avoid complications arising from future contingent remainders. The Rule in Shelley’s Case has been abolished or superseded by statute in nearly all U.S. jurisdictions. Modern courts generally honor the grantor’s intent to create a separate remainder in the heirs, rather than applying the historical merger doctrine.
[Last reviewed in November of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team]