HEIR

(Lat. hseres.) In Law, one who succeeds by descent to lands, tenements, and hereditaments. Strictly speaking, a person is not properly called heir in the lifetime of his ancestor; according to the ancient maxim, nemo est hcercs viventis. (For the rules which govern this succe ion in England by common law and statute, see Descent.) Heir-apparent is he who (by law or custom) must succeed, by descent, to the hereditaments, if he survive the present tenant; as, at common law, the eldest son. Heir-presumptive, he who stands nearest in succe ion in the default of an heir-apparent; as an eldest brother where there is no i ue. Heir-at-lato, or heir general, is he who succeeds by descent to lands in fee simple. Heir-special, i ue in tail claiming by the form of the gift. {See Fee-Tail.) Heir by custom, he who succeeds to lands or tenements by custom; as all the sons by gavelkind. Heir-male, i. e. the nearest male in the succe ion, is not strictly a term of English law, since lands cannot descend in this way; but some dignities are thus limited. A devisee is sometimes called heir by devise, or heeres fact i is. Bastards, aliens, persons attaint of treason and felony, cannot be heirs; but idiots and lunatics may. Things that pa with the land, as conditions and covenants real, goods and chattels annexed to the freehold {see Fixtures), and. terms of years to attend the inheritance, are in ordinary legal language said to go to the heir: as also heir-looms, being such goods and chattels as go by special custom along with the inheritance. In Scottish law, the word heir is taken in a larger acceptation, as to personal as well as real property. Heirs-at-law are termed in it heiis whatsomever. It recognizes several species of heirs: as the heir-active, who has the right of action; heir of line, or lineal heir; heir by conquest, who succeeds to estates to which the deceased donor did not himself succeed by descent; heirs portioners, in English law coparceners; heir of tailzie (or in tail), and so forth. By the civil law, heirs are of two kinds — legitimate, or by act of law; and instituted, or by the will of the po e or: the former only answering to those who are properly designated as heirs in our own law, the latter to our purchasers. Legitimate are either heirs of blood — heirs under the title " unde vir et uxor" (by which, in default of heirs of blood, a husband or wife succeeded to the goods of the deceased spouse; a provision not generally preserved in modern Continental law); and heirs irregular, — such as the lord to whom an escheat falls, . Heirs instituted are of many kinds. [s. 560]