HEIR PRESUMPTIVE. A presumptive heir is one who, in the present circumstances, would be entitled to the inheritance, but whose rights may be defeated by the contingency1 of some nearer heir being born. 2 B1 Com.208. In Louisiana, the presumptive heir is he who is the nearest relation of the deceased, capable of inheriting. This quality is given to him before the decease of the person from whom he is to inherit, as well as after the opening of the succession, until he has accepted or renounced2 it. Civ. Code of Lo. art. 876.
HEIR, TESTAMENTARY, civil law. A testamentary heir is one who is constituted heir by testament3 executed in the form prescribed by law. He is so called to distinguish him from the legal heirs, who are called to the succession by the law; and from conventional heirs, who are so constituted by a contract inter4 vivos. See Haeres factus; Devisee.
HEIR, UNCONDITIONAL5. A term used in the civil law, adopted by the Civil Code of Louisiana. Unconditional heirs are those who inherit without any reservation, or without making an inventory6, whether their acceptance be express or tacit. Civ. Code of Lo. art. 878.
HEIRESS. A female heir to a person having an estate of inheritance. When there is more than one, they are called co-heiresses, or co-heirs. HEPTARCHY, Eng. law. The name of the kingdom or government established by the Saxons, on their establishment in Britain so called because it was composed of seven kingdoms, namely, Kent, Essex, Sussex, Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumberland.
HERALDRY, civil and canon law. The art or office of a herald7. It is the art, practice, or science of recording8 genealogies9, and blazoning10 arms or ensigns armorial. It also teaches whatever relates to the marshaling of cavalcades11, processions, and other public ceremonies. Encyc.; Ridley's View of the Civil and Canon Law, pt. 2, c. 1, §6.
HERBAGE, English Law, A species of easement, which consists in the right to feed one's cattle on another man's ground.
HEREDITAMENTS, estates. Anything capable of being inherited, be it corporeal12 or incorporeal13, real, personal, or mixed and including not only lands and everything thereon, but also heir looms14, and certain furniture which, by custom, may descend15 to the heir, together with the land. Co. Litt. 5 b; 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 219; 2 Bl. Com. 17. By this term such things are denoted, as may be the subject-matter of inheritance, but not the inheritance itself; it cannot therefore, by its own intrinsic force, enlarge an estate, prima facie a life estate, into a fee. 2 B. & P. 251; 8 T. R. 503; 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 219, note T.
2. Hereditaments are divided into corporeal and incorporeal. Corporeal hereditaments are confined to lands. (q. v.) Vide Incorporeal hereditaments, and Shep. To. 91; Cruise's Dig. tit. 1, s. 1; Wood's Inst.221; 3 Kent, Com. 321; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; 1 Chit. Pr. 203-229; 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1595, et seq.
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