## Facts

- In 1897, Jessie B. Etheridge conveyed approximately 10 acres on Hatteras Island in Dare County to the United States using a federal life-saving station form deed.
- The deed recited a purpose related to acquiring “the right to use and occupy” sites for life-saving or life-boat stations, and described the tract as a site for a life-saving station.
- The operative grant conveyed the described parcel to the United States using broad conveyancing terms (“grant, demise, release, and convey”) and included rights of ingress and egress.
- The deed did not include language expressly providing that the estate would revert or terminate if the property ceased being used as a life-saving station.
- The United States operated a life-saving station on the property; later the Coast Guard operated there until the station was abandoned in 1989.
- In 1992, the United States quitclaimed its interest in the parcel to Dare County.
- Etheridge’s heirs (and their grantee, Station Associates, Inc.) claimed the 1897 deed conveyed only a limited estate that ended when the station use stopped, and they sued Dare County to recover possession.
- The trial court granted judgment on the pleadings for Dare County, concluding the deed conveyed a fee simple absolute to the United States.
- The Court of Appeals reversed, construing the deed as creating a fee simple determinable that ended when the station was abandoned.
- The North Carolina Supreme Court granted discretionary review.

## Issues

1. Whether a deed that recites an intended use for a life-saving station and uses “use and occupy” language, but lacks an express reversion or termination clause, conveys a fee simple determinable or a fee simple absolute.
2. Whether references to an intended public purpose and federal form/statutory “use and occupy” language can, without explicit limiting terms, reduce the estate conveyed in the granting clause.
3. Whether judgment on the pleadings for the county was proper based on the deed’s language.

## Decision

- The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated the trial court’s judgment on the pleadings for Dare County.
- The Court held the 1897 deed conveyed a fee simple absolute to the United States, and Dare County succeeded to that title through the 1992 quitclaim deed.
- The Court rejected the argument that the deed created a fee simple determinable based solely on purpose language and references to “use and occupy” or a “term.”

## Legal Principles

- Defeasible fees are disfavored and will not be found unless the deed contains express and unambiguous language that the estate will revert or terminate upon a stated event or nonuse.
- A statement of intended use or purpose in a deed, without clear language of automatic termination or reverter, does not create a fee simple determinable.
- The granting clause’s operative conveyance controls absent explicit limiting words; purpose recitals and contextual references do not, by themselves, cut down a fee simple conveyance.
- Typical limiting terms (e.g., “so long as,” “until,” or an express reverter provision) are required to establish automatic termination of the estate.

## Conclusion

The North Carolina Supreme Court held that the 1897 conveyance to the United States was a fee simple absolute because the deed lacked clear, express language providing for reversion or termination upon cessation of life-saving station use; Dare County therefore held superior title.


Station Assocs., Inc. v. Dare Cnty., 350 N.C. 367, 513 S.E.2d 789 (1999)