Also known as: ascendants · ancestor · lineal ascendant
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An individual who precedes another in the direct line of ascent from that person. The term encompasses parents, grandparents, and other lineal forebears.
An individual who precedes another in the direct line of ascent from that person. The term encompasses parents, grandparents, and other lineal forebears.
Arthur Abrams, the designated ascendant, left a trust remainder to his descendants without specifying shares. When the interest vested in possession, his two surviving children and three grandchildren from a deceased child were alive. The trustee divided the property into two shares under the default rule, giving one share to each child and subdividing the second share equally among the grandchildren.
A person or force that is dominant or rising in influence or authority.
A school district defended its student-assignment plan by arguing that local control over integration remained the ascendant approach after decades of deference to school boards. The Court rejected that view and held the plan unconstitutional under strict scrutiny.
A person or force that is dominant or rising in influence or authority.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Amelia Amari, the ascendant, devised her estate to her issue. At distribution her son was alive and her daughter had predeceased leaving two children. The court applied the presumption that issue includes all generations descending from Amelia and allocated shares by representation to the son and the two grandchildren.
Aaron Adams, the ascendant, created a trust for his descendants per capita at each generation. At the distribution date his living son and two grandchildren from a deceased daughter were the nearest generation. The trustee created two equal shares, one for the son and one divided between the grandchildren.
Ava Adebayo, the ascendant, directed her estate to her issue per stirpes. She was survived by one child and by two grandchildren from a deceased child. The executor created two shares, one passing outright to the surviving child and the second divided equally between the two grandchildren.
An ascendant is a lineal predecessor such as a parent or grandparent. Class gifts to issue or descendants refer only to the designated ancestor's lineal descendants of the first and more remote generations, not to ascendants.
The property is divided into as many shares as there are surviving children of the designated ancestor plus deceased children who left surviving descendants. Each surviving child receives one share and each deceased child's share is subdivided at the next generation until fully allocated.
No. Issue and heirs of the body refer to lineal descendants by blood or legal adoption. A foster child who was never adopted does not qualify, so an alternative gift over to a third party becomes possessory when the tenant in tail dies without qualifying issue.
The spouse receives a dower-type life estate measured as though the deceased had held fee simple, but that interest remains subordinate to any remainders, executory interests, or possibilities of reverter that limited the fee tail.
The property passes to living class members at the distribution date in the shares they would have received if the designated ancestor had died intestate owning the property at that time.
A newspaper argued that its publication of a rape victim's name was protected because the trend toward openness of truthful information had become ascendant. The Court agreed that the First Amendment barred liability on those facts.
…the Illinois Probate Act, which provides in relevant part: "An illegitimate child is heir of his mother and of any maternal ancestor, and of any person from whom his mother might have inherited, if living; and the lawful issue of an illegitimate person shall represent such person and take, by descent, any estate which…