Only take if no issue or ancestor. Fee Tail Can potentially endure forever, but automatically ceases if and when the first grantee of the estate ceases to have any lineal descendants. A reversion interest in the grantor is assumed unless a remainder in someone else is specified. Fee simple is favored over life estate. To interpret an ambiguous will, first look to intent, language, context, and then to rules of construction.
Statute says fee simple unless explicitly otherwise.
Anna, life tenant, was not receiving enough income from her land to sustain her. She brought suit against the remaindermen to allow her to sell the land, which had development potential. Chancellor granter her relief under theory of economic waste , but this was reversed and remanded because sale of entire property wasn't in the interests of all parties. Economic waste usually only applies when there isn't enough income to pay the taxes or otherwise keep up the land. Two theories of economic waste exist, one aimed at preserving for the remaindermen the same land that was left to the the life tenant, the other aimed at avoiding economic damage to the property.