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INHERITANCE
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INHERITANCE . In See also:English See also:law, inheritance, See also:heir and other kindred words have a meaning very different from that of the Latin haeres, from which they are derived. In See also:Roman law the heir or heirs represented the entire legal See also:personality of the deceased—his universunz jns. In English law the heir is simply the See also:person on whom the real See also:property of the deceased devolves by operation of law if he See also:dies intestate. He has nothing to do as heir with the See also:personal property; he is not appointed by will; and except in the See also:case of coparceners he is a single individual. The Roman haeres takes the whole See also:estate; his See also:appointment may or may not be by testament; and more persons than one may be associated together as heirs. The See also:devolution of an inheritance in See also:England is now regulated by the rules of descent, as altered by the Inheritance See also:Act 1833, amended by the Law of Property See also:Amendment Act 1859. 1. The first See also:rule is that inheritance shall descend to the issue of the last " purchaser." A purchaser in law means one who acquires an estate otherwise than by descent, e.g. by will, by gratuitous See also:gift, or by See also:purchase in the See also:ordinary meaning of the word. This rule is one of the changes introduced by the Inheritance Act, which further provides that " the person last entitled to the See also:land shall be considered the purchaser thereof unless it be proved that he inherited the same." Under the earlier law descent was traced from the last person who had " See also:seisin " or feudal See also:possession, and it was occasionally a trouble-some question whether the heir or person entitled had ever, in fact, acquired such possession. Now the only inquiry is into See also:title, and each person entitled is presumed to be in by purchase unless he is proved to be in by descent, so that the stock of descent is the last person entitled who cannot be shown to have inherited. 2. The male is admitted before the See also:female. 3. Among See also:males of equal degree in See also:consanguinity to the purchaser, the See also:elder excludes the younger; but See also:females of the same degree take together as " coparceners." 4. Lineal descendants take the See also:place of their ancestor. Thus an eldest son dying and leaving issue would be represented by such issue, who would exclude their See also:father's See also:brothers and sisters. 5. If there are no lineal descendants of the purchaser, the next to inherit is his nearest lineal ancestor. This is a rule introduced by the Inheritance Act. Under the former law inheritance never went to an ancestorcollaterals, however remote of the person last seized being preferred even to his father. Various explanations have been given of this seemingly anomalous rule—See also:Bracton and See also:Blackstone being content to say that it rests on the law of nature, by which heavy bodies gravitate downwards. Another explanation is that estates were granted to be descendible in the same way as an See also:ancient inheritance, which having passed from father to son ex necessitate went to collaterals on failure of issue of the person last seized. 6. The See also:sixth rule is thus expressed by See also:Joshua See also:Williams in his See also:treatise on The Law of Real Property: " The father and all the male paternal ancestors of the purchaser and their descendants shall be admitted before any of the female paternal ancestors or their heirs; all the female paternal ancestors and their heirs before the See also:mother or any of the maternal ancestors or her or their descendants; and the mother and all the male maternal ancestors and her and their descendants before any of the female maternal ancestors or their heirs."Kinsmen of the See also:half-See also:blood may be heirs; such kinsmen shall inherit next after a kinsman in the same degree of the whole blood, and after the issue of such kinsman where the See also:common ancestor is a male and next after the common ancestor where such ancestor is a female. The See also:admission of kinsmen of the half-blood into the See also:chain of descent is an alteration made by the Inheritance Act. Formerly a relative, however nearly connected in blood with the purchaser through one only and not both parents, could never inherit—a half-See also:brother for example. 8. In the admission of female paternal ancestors, the mother of the more remote male paternal ancestor and her heirs shall be preferred to the mother of the less remote male paternal and her heirs; and, in the case of female maternal ancestors, the mother of the more remote male maternal ancestor shall be preferred to the mother of a less remote male maternal ancestor. This rule, following the See also:opinion of Blackstone, settles a point much disputed by See also:text-writers, although its importance was little more than theoretical. 9. When there shall be a See also:total failure of heirs of the purchaser, or when any lands shall be descendible as if an ancestor had been the purchaser thereof, and there shall be a total failure of the heirs of such ancestor, then and in every such case the descent shall be traced from the person last entitled to the land as if he had been the purchaser thereof. This rule is enacted by the Law of Property Amendment Act 1859. It would apply to such a case as the following: Purchaser dies intestate, leaving a son and no other relations, and the son in turn dies intestate; the son's relations through his mother are now admitted by this rule. If the purchaser is illegitimate, his only relations must necessarily be his own issue. Failing heirs of all kinds, the lands of an intestate purchaser, not alienated by him, would revert by " See also:escheat " to the next immediate See also:lord of the See also:fee, who would generally be the See also:crown. 
If an intermediate lordship could be proved to exist between the crown and the See also:tenant in fee See also:simple, such intermediate lord would have the escheat. But escheat is a See also:matter of rare occurrence. The above rules apply to all See also:freehold land whether the estate therein of the intestate is legal or equitable. Before 1884, if a See also:sole trustee had the legal estate in realty, and his cestwi que See also:trust died intestate and without heirs, the land escheated to the trustee. This distinction was abolished by the Intestate Estates Act 1884. The descent of an estate in tail would be ascertained by such of the foregoing rules as are not inapplicable to it. By the See also:form of the See also:entail the estate descends to the "issue" of the person to whom the estate was given in tail—in other words, the last purchaser. The preceding rules after the See also:fourth, being intended for the ascertainment of heirs other than those by lineal descent, would therefore not apply; and a See also:special See also:limitation in the entail, such as to heirs male or female only, would render unnecessary some of the others. When the entail has been barred, the estate descends according to these rules. In See also:copyhold estates descent, like other incidents thereof, is regulated by the See also:custom of each particular See also:manor; e.g. the youngest son may exclude the elder sons. How far the Inheritance Act applies to such estates has been seriously disputed. It has been held in one case (See also:Muggleton v. See also:Barnett) that the Inheritance Act, which orders descent to be traced from the last purchaser, does not override a manorial custom to trace descent from the person last seized, but this position has been controverted on the ground that the act itself includes the case of customary holdings. See also:Husband and wife do not stand in the See also:rank of heir to each other. Their interests in each other's real property, are secured by See also:courtesy and See also:dower. The personal property of a person dying intestate devolves according to an entirely different set of rules (see See also:INTESTACY). In See also:Scotland the rules of descent differ from the above in several particulars. Descent is traced, as in England before the Inheritance Act, to the person last seized. The first to succeed are the lineal descendants of the deceased, and the rules of See also:primogeniture, preference of males to females, equal See also:succession of females (heirsportioners), and See also:representation of ancestors are generally the same as in English law. Next to the lineal descendants, and failing them, In some states, e.g. in See also:California, See also:Louisiana and See also:Texas, the law of " community property " of husband and wife prevails. This is derived from the See also:French and See also:Spanish law existing in the territories out of which those states were formed, as the result of the See also:conquest of See also:Mexico by See also:Spain and the colonizing of Louisiana by See also:France. The See also:foundation See also:idea is an equal See also:division at See also:death of either party of all property acquired during their See also:marriage except by gift, devise or descent. In See also:general the husband has the See also:control and management thereof during the marriage, and either survivor has the See also:administration of the moiety of the one deceased. There is a conflict in the See also:laws in such states as to the exact See also:definition and as to whether or not the gains or profits of such property are to be deemed See also:separate property or community property [ Succession of Dielman (Louisiana, 1907), 43 See also:Southern See also:Rep. 972). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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