Legal Definitions - executed fine

An executed fine is a legal term that refers to a final agreement or compromise made in a fictitious or actual lawsuit to determine the true owner of a piece of land. It was used as a form of conveyance to disentail an estate. The fine owed its popularity as a means of conveyancing to two factors, neither of which was present in the standard method of conveyance by means of feoffment. First, the enrolling in the court records provided evidence of the transaction which was both permanent and free from the danger of forgery. Secondly, the effect of the fine was to set running a short period of limitation at the expiration of which all claims to the land were barred.

For example, if two people were disputing the ownership of a piece of land, they could settle the matter by making an executed fine. The person who was found to be the true owner would be able to keep the land, and the other person would have to give up their claim to it.

Executed fines were abolished in England in 1833.