Also known as: heres · haeredes · heir · heirs
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An individual who succeeds to a decedent's property by intestate succession. The term identifies those entitled to take under statutes governing distribution when no valid will exists.
Hakim Hall gave his daughter $50,000 for a home purchase two years before his death. He left a note stating the sum was an advancement. At death Hakim died intestate survived only by the daughter. The probate court subtracts the gift from her intestate share under the advancement rule.
Hilda Hernandez conveyed land to her brother for life with remainder to his heirs. The brother died without descendants. His collateral relatives inherited the remainder because the limitation ran to heirs generally rather than lineal descendants alone.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Hannah Hughes transferred $30,000 to her son during life. No writing declared the transfer an advancement. After her intestate death the son claimed the full share. The court refused to treat the gift as an advancement because no contemporaneous writing existed.
Hazel Hoffman received land from her mother. The mother's letter stated the parcel would reduce the daughter's share of the estate. After the mother's intestate death the court offset the land's value against the daughter's intestate portion because the writing indicated the gift counted in distribution.
Harriet Hamilton died intestate without a surviving spouse. She left two children and no parents. The entire estate passed by representation to the surviving descendants under the intestacy statute.
Hiroshi Hasegawa's will devised property to his heirs at law. The court construed the gift as creating a present interest in the named beneficiaries rather than a reversion in the testator because the worthier-title doctrine no longer applies.
A gift counts as an advancement only when the decedent declared in a contemporaneous writing or the heir acknowledged in writing that the gift is an advancement or that it should reduce the heir's share.
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Property advanced is valued at the earlier of the time the heir took possession or the time of the decedent's death.
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The property is not taken into account in distribution unless the decedent's writing provides otherwise.
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No. The doctrine of worthier title is abolished, so such language does not presumptively create a reversionary interest in the transferor.
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…he suffers in some indefinite way in common with people generally. . . . Here the parties plaintiff have no such case. . . . [T]heir complaint . . . is merely that officials of the executive department of the government are executing and will execute an act of Congress asserted to be unconstitutional; and this we are…