Common Recovery Law and Legal Definition
Common recovery is an elaborate proceeding, consisting of legal fictions, by which a tenant in tail disentailed a fee-tail estate. This action facilitated land transfer. This proceeding allows a potential transferee who was barred by law from receiving land to recover the land by suing the actual owner. Common recoveries were abolished early in the 19th century and were originally concocted by the clergy as a way to avoid the land-conveyance restrictions imposed by mortmain acts. Common recovery is also termed as feigned recovery.
