FEE
fee. 1. A charge for labor or services, esp. professional services.
attorney’s fees.See ATTORNEY’S FEES.
contingent fee.See CONTINGENT FEE.
docket fee.A fee charged by a court for filing a claim.
expert-witness fee.A fee paid for the professional services of an expert witness. [Cases: Costs
- C.J.S. Costs § 116.]
fixed fee. 1. A flat charge for a service; a charge that does not vary with the amount of time or
effort required to complete the service. 2. In a construction contract, a predetermined amount that
is added to costs for calculating payments due under the contract. [Cases: Contracts 231(1).]
franchise fee. 1. A fee paid by a franchisee to a franchisor for franchise rights. • Franchise
fees are regulated by state laws. 2. A fee paid to the government for a government grant of a
franchise, such as the one required for operating a radio or television station. [Cases:
Telecommunications 86, 401. C.J.S. Telegraphs, Telephones, Radio, and Television §§ 30, 153.]
jury fee.A fee, usu. a minimal one, that a party to a civil suit must pay the court clerk to be
entitled to a jury trial. [Cases: Jury 26. C.J.S. Juries §§ 180–181.]
maintenance fee.See MAINTENANCE FEE.
management fee.A fee charged by an investment manager for supervisory services.
origination fee.A fee charged by a lender for preparing and processing a loan. [Cases: Usury
- C.J.S. Interest and Usury; Consumer Credit §§ 162, 165–168.]
probate fee.Compensation paid with a probate court’s approval to an attorney who performs
probate-related services to the estate.
witness fee. 1. A statutory fee that must be tendered with a subpoena for the subpoena to be
binding. [Cases: Witnesses 23. C.J.S. Witnesses §§ 70–71.] 2. A fee paid by a party to a witness
as reimbursement for reasonable expenses (such as travel, meals, lodging, and loss of time)
incurred as a result of the witness’s having to attend and testify at a deposition or trial. • Any other
payment to a nonexpert witness is considered unethical. — Also termed (in English law) conduct
money. Cf. expert-witness fee.
- A heritable interest in land; esp., a fee simple absolute. — Also termed fee estate; feod;
feodum; feud; feudum; fief. See FEE SIMPLE. Cf. FEU. [Cases: Estates in Property 5–7. C.J.S.
Estates §§ 11–14, 20–21.]“To enfeoff someone was to transfer to him an interest in land called a
fief — or, if you prefer, a feoff, feod, or feud. Our modern word fee, a direct lineal descendant of
fief, implies the characteristic of potentially infinite duration when used to describe an interest in
land today; but in the earliest part of the feudal period, a fief might have been as small as a life
interest. We shall see later that feoffment was not used to transfer interests ‘smaller’ than life
interests — e.g., so-called terms for years — but for our purposes now we may simply note that
transfers of interests for life or ‘larger’ were accomplished by livery of seisin.” Thomas F. Bergin
& Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future Interests 11 (2d ed. 1984).
arriere fee (ar-ee-air orar-ee-<<schwa>>r).Hist. A fee dependent on a superior one; a subfief.
— Also termed arriere fief.
base fee.A fee that has some qualification connected to it and that terminates whenever the
qualification terminates. • An example of the words creating a base fee are “to A and his heirs,
tenants of the manor of Tinsleydale,” which would terminate when A or his heirs are no longer
tenants of the manor of Tinsleydale. Among the base fees at common law are the fee simple
subject to a condition subsequent and the conditional fee. — Also termed determinable fee;
qualified fee; limited fee. See fee simple determinable under FEE SIMPLE.
“A base fee is a particular kind of determinable fee. The two essentials of a base fee are (a) it
continues only so long as the original grantor or any heirs of his body are alive; and (b) there is a
remainder or reversion after it…. In effect a base fee was a fee simple which endured for as long as
the entail would have continued if it had not been barred, and determined when the entail would
have ended.” Robert E. Megarry & M.P. Thompson, A Manual of the Law of Real Property 38–40
(6th ed. 1993).
determinable fee.See base fee.
fee expectant.Rare. A fee tail created when land is given to a man and wife and the heirs of
their bodies. See FRANKMARRIAGE.
fee simple.See FEE SIMPLE. fee tail.See FEE TAIL.
great fee.Hist. In feudal law, a fee received directly from the Crown.
knight’s fee.See KNIGHT’S FEE.
lay fee.Hist. A fee interest in land held by ordinary feudal tenure, such as socage, rather than
by ecclesiastical tenure through frankalmoin. See FRANKALMOIN; SOCAGE.
limited fee.See base fee.
plowman’s fee.Hist. A species of tenure for peasants or small farmers by which the land
descended in equal shares to all the tenant’s sons.
qualified fee. See base fee.
quasi-fee.Hist. An estate in fee acquired wrongfully.[Blacks Law 8th]