Forfeiture
in English law, is a punishment annexed to some illegal act or negligence in the owner of real property, whereby he loses all his interest therein, and it goes to the party injured, as a recompense for the wrong which either he alone or the public with him has sustained. Forfeitures are either civil or criminal. Civil forfeiture takes place when some alienation is made contrary to law, as in mortmain; or when a particular tenant aliens for a larger estate than he himself has, as when a tenant for life makes a conveyance in fee. Forfeiture for criminal causes takes place in treason or felony, and for one or two other offenses.
Forfeiture by alienation is almost unknown in the United States, and the just principle prevails that the conveyance by the tenant operates only on the interest which he possessed, and does not affect the remainder man or reversioner.
Under the Constitution and laws of the United States, forfeiture for crimes is nearly abolished; and when it occurs, the State recovers only the title which the owner had. An estate may be forfeited by a breach or non-performance of a condition annexed to the estate, either expressed in the deed at its orig- FORGET-ME-NOT inal creation, or implied by law, from a principle of natural reason.