Heir - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition heir

Definition :

Heir [fr. heire, Old Fr.; h'res, Lat.], a person who succeeds by descent to an estate of inheritance. It is nomen collectivum, and extends to all heirs; and under heirs, the heirs of heirs are comprehended in infinitum.

A person who, under the laws of intestacy, is entitled to receive an intestate decedents property, esp. real property, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 727.

The (English) Admin. Of Estates Act, 1925, s. 45, having abolished all modes of descent of real property obtaining before 1st January, 1926, in regard to deaths taking place after 1925, except in a few cases (see DESCENT and DEVOLUTION), the importance of the 'heir' had diminished but the following note has been retained since the word 'heir' will be construed according to its meaning under the general law in force before 1926, in deeds and wills executed after 1925, under which the 'heir' may become entitled to an equitable interest in personality and realty corresponding to a real estate by purchase under the old law; see (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 132. S. 131 of the same Act abolishes the rule in Shelley's case, and provides that a limitation to the heir of a particular person is to be construed inequity as a word of purchase to the 'heir,' and not of limitation as it was under the general law in force before 1st January, 1926.

The different kinds of heirs were classed and defined:-

(a) Heir apparent. He whose right of inheritance is indefeasible, provided he outlive the ancestor: as the eldest son, who must by the course of the Common Law be heir to his father on his death, 3 Prest. Abst. 5. Especially the eldest son of the Sovereign as heir to the Crown; or the eldest son of an eldest son who has died during the Sovereign's life.

(b) Heir by custom. He who is heir by a particular and local custom, as in borough-English lands, the youngest son succeeds his father, while in gavelkind lands, all the sons inherit as parceners, and make but one heir, Co. Litt. 140.

(c) Heir by devise or h'res factus. He who is made, by will, the testator's heir or devisee, and has no other right or interest than the will gives him.

(d) Heir general, or heir at law. He who, after his father or ancestor's death, has a right to inherit all his lands, tenements and here ditaments.

(e) Heir presumptive. He who, if the ancestor should die immediately, would be his heir, but whose right of inheritance may be defeated by the contingency of some nearer heir being born; as a brother or nephew, whose presumptive succession may be destroyed by the birth of a child; or a daughter, whose present hopes may be hereafter cut off by the birth of a son.

(x) H'res sanguinis et h'reditatis. (Heir of the blood and inheritance.) a son who may be defeated of his inheritance by his father's displeasure.

(h) Heir special. The issue in tail claiming per forman doni.

(q) Ultimus h'res. He to whom lands come by escheat for want of proper heirs. He was either the lord of the manor or the Crown. See ESCHEAT.

In Scots law 'heir' has a more extended significance, comprehending not only those who succeed to lands, but successors to personal property also. See Erskine's Institutes, b. 3, tit. 8, s. 47 et seq.

Means any person, male or female, who is entitled to succeed to the property of an intestate under this Act. [Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (30 of 1956), s. 3 (1) (f)]

The word 'heir' may be distinguishable from the word 'legatee' but it is also at times used in its more general and comprehensive sense as indicating a person upon whom the property devolves on the death of another and hence when the intent is clear the word 'heir' may well be treated as equivalent to 'legatee' or 'devised'. The true scope, effect and significance of this word is, therefore, in all cases a question of intention which has to be determined principally on a consideration of the object and purpose of the statute in which it is used, Jaspal Singh v. Additional District Judge, AIR 1984 SC 1880 (1884): (1985) 1 SCR 889: (1984) 4 SCC 434.

Generally speaking, 'heirs' are those persons whom the law declares to be entitled to the estate of a deceased person, and in common legal parlance the word 'heir' like the expression 'heir-at-law' undoubtedly connotes and is suggestive of a person who succeeds to the estate in case of intestacy under the statutes of succession. But in common speech, this word is also not infrequently used to indicate those who come in any manner to the ownership of any property by reason of the death of the owner or persons upon whom the property devolves on the death of another either by law or by will, Gulzara Singh v. Tej Kaur, AIR 1961 Punj 288.