Also known as: statutory inheritance · intestate succession
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An inheritance or succession that passes by operation of law rather than by will. The term identifies the default mechanism that distributes a decedent's property to heirs under intestacy statutes when no valid will controls the disposition.
Hamid Hassan left a trust providing a class gift of farmland to his descendants without specifying shares. When the interest vested in possession, three living descendants claimed equal portions. The court applied the governing statute and awarded each the share they would have received had Hamid died intestate owning the land at that moment.
Hope Howard died owning a warehouse that passed directly to her sole heir under the state intestacy statute. No deed from Hope was needed. The heir recorded an affidavit of heirship to perfect record title after the transfer by operation of law.
Hiroshi Hasegawa died intestate survived by a child born outside marriage whose paternity had been established by court order. The child claimed an equal share with legitimate siblings. The court held that denying the child intestate rights violated equal protection and awarded the statutory share.
Deta Mona Trimble is the illegitimate daughter of Jessie Trimble and Sherman Gordon. Trimble and Gordon lived together in Chicago with Deta Mona from 1970 until Gordon died in 1974 as the victim of a homicide. On January 2, 1973, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, entered a paternity order finding Gordon to be the father of Deta Mona and ordering him to pay fifteen dollars per week for her support. Gordon thereafter supported Deta Mona in accordance with the paternity order and openly acknowledged her as his child. Gordon died intestate at the age of twenty-eight, leaving an estate consisting only of a 1974 Plymouth automobile worth approximately twenty-five hundred dollars. Shortly after Gordon's death, Trimble, as the mother and next friend of Deta Mona, filed a petition for letters of administration, determination of heirship, and declaratory relief in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. That court entered an order determining heirship, identifying as the only heirs of Gordon his father Joseph Gordon, his mother Ethel King, and his brother, two sisters, and a half brother. The Circuit Court excluded Deta Mona on the authority of section twelve of the Illinois Probate Act. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court on the authority of its earlier decision in In re Estate of Karas. The United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction to consider the arguments that section twelve violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by invidiously discriminating on the basis of illegitimacy and sex.
View caseHenry Hoffman died leaving workers' compensation benefits. Two children born outside marriage proved dependency and sought shares equal to legitimate children. The court ruled that excluding them from benefits denied equal protection and directed payment under the statute.
Henry Clyde Stokes died on June 22, 1967, from injuries received the previous day during the course of his employment in Louisiana. At the time of his death Stokes resided and maintained a household with Willie Mae Weber, to whom he was not married. Living in the household were four legitimate minor children born of the marriage between Stokes and Adlay Jones Stokes, who was at the time committed to a mental hospital. Also living in the home was one unacknowledged illegitimate child born of the relationship between Stokes and Willie Mae Weber, and a second illegitimate child of Stokes and Weber was born posthumously. On June 29, 1967, Stokes' four legitimate children, through their maternal grandmother as guardian, filed a claim for their father's death under Louisiana's workmen's compensation law. The defendant employer and its insurer impleaded Willie Mae Weber, who appeared and claimed compensation benefits for the two illegitimate children. Meanwhile the four legitimate children had brought another suit for their father's death against a third-party tortfeasor, which was settled for an amount in excess of the maximum benefits allowable under workmen's compensation. The illegitimate children did not share in this settlement. Subsequently the employer in the initial action requested the extinguishment of all parties' workmen's compensation claims by reason of the tort settlement. The trial judge awarded the four legitimate children the maximum allowable amount of compensation and declared their entitlement had been satisfied from the tort suit settlement, so the four legitimate children dismissed their workmen's compensation claim. Judgment was also awarded to Stokes' two illegitimate offspring to the extent that maximum compensation benefits were not exhausted by the four legitimate children. Since such benefits had been entirely exhausted by the amount of the tort settlement in which only the four dependent legitimate offspring participated, the two dependent illegitimate children received nothing. Both the Louisiana Court of Appeal and a divided Louisiana Supreme Court sustained the statutes over constitutional objections. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the case.
View caseHarriet Hamilton held real property in tenancy by the entirety with her spouse. After the spouse's death the IRS asserted a lien against the entire parcel. The Court held that the surviving spouse's interest passed by operation of law and remained subject to federal tax collection rules.
In 1988, the Internal Revenue Service assessed $482,446 in unpaid income tax liabilities against Don Craft for his failure to file federal income tax returns for the years 1979 through 1986. At that time, Don Craft and his wife, respondent Sandra L. Craft, owned a piece of real property in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as tenants by the entirety. After notice of the federal tax lien was filed, the Crafts jointly executed a quitclaim deed purporting to transfer Don Craft's interest in the property to Sandra Craft for one dollar. When Sandra Craft later attempted to sell the property, a title search revealed the lien. The IRS agreed to release the lien to allow the sale on the condition that half of the net proceeds be held in escrow pending determination of the Government's interest. Sandra Craft then brought an action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan to quiet title to the escrowed proceeds. The District Court granted summary judgment to the Government. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the tax lien did not attach to the property under Michigan law and remanded for consideration of the Government's fraudulent conveyance claim. On remand, the District Court found that the conveyance itself was not fraudulent but that the use of nonexempt funds to pay the mortgage constituted a fraudulent act, and it awarded the IRS a share of the proceeds. The Sixth Circuit affirmed that determination on the lien issue as law of the case. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider whether Don Craft had a separate interest in the entireties property to which the federal tax lien attached.
View caseHazel Hoffman died intestate survived by an acknowledged illegitimate child. State law at the time barred the child from sharing in the estate. The Court upheld the statute as a permissible state regulation of property succession at death.
Lou Bertha Patterson gave birth to Rita Vincent on March 15, 1962, in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. On May 10, 1962, Patterson and Ezra Vincent jointly executed a Louisiana State Board of Health form before a notary public acknowledging that Vincent was the natural father of the child. This acknowledgment occurred under Louisiana procedures but did not alter the child's status for purposes of intestate succession. Ezra Vincent died intestate on September 16, 1968, in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, leaving substantial property within the state but no will to direct its distribution. Lou Bertha Labine, as guardian and tutrix of Rita Vincent, petitioned the state court for the appointment of an administrator for Vincent's estate, a declaration that Rita Vincent was the sole heir, and an order directing support and maintenance payments for the child. In the alternative, the petition sought a declaration of entitlement to $150 per month in support under Louisiana law. The administrator of the succession answered the petition by claiming that Vincent's relatives were entitled to the entire estate. The trial court ruled that the father's collateral relations took the property and dismissed the petition with costs. It also denied the support claim in light of Social Security payments of $60 per month and Veterans Administration payments of $40 per month available to the child. The Louisiana Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, affirmed the judgment, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana denied a petition for writ of certiorari. The child's guardian appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which noted probable jurisdiction.
View caseHereditas legitima distributes property according to intestacy statutes when no will controls. A testamentary transfer follows the terms of a valid will. The distinction determines whether statutory default rules or the testator's expressed wishes govern distribution.
Yes. When a class gift to descendants or heirs lacks distribution instructions, the property passes in the shares that class members would receive under the applicable intestacy statute if the designated ancestor had died owning the property at the time of vesting.
Yes. Transfers by intestate succession or other operation-of-law mechanisms pass title directly. A fiduciary may later execute a confirmatory deed, but none is required for the initial passage of title.
Modern decisions require equal treatment of illegitimate children when paternity is established, striking down statutes that bar them from intestate shares. Earlier cases permitted states broader latitude to regulate succession at death.
Supporting sources
…this case is the constitutionality of § 12 of the Illinois Probate Act which allows illegitimate children to inherit by intestate succession only from their mothers. Under Illinois law, legitimate children are allowed to inherit by intestate succession from both their mothers and their fathers. I Appellant Deta…