Also known as: lineal descents · direct descent · lineal heirs
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The transmission of property or status from an ancestor to a descendant through an unbroken chain of direct blood relationship. This form of succession passes only along the vertical line connecting parent and child or grandparent and grandchild. It stands in contrast to collateral descent that moves through siblings or other oblique relatives.
Latoya Lane devised her cottage to her daughter Lily Lopez and Lily's heirs. Lily died without children, leaving the property to pass under intestacy rules. Latoya's grandson Lorenzo Lugo claimed the cottage as Lily's sole lineal descendant. The probate court recognized Lorenzo's claim because the estate descended directly through the parent-child-grandchild line.
Laura Lewis left her building to her son Liam Larson and his heirs. Liam died intestate without descendants. His sister Lillian Locke asserted a claim as a collateral heir. The court examined whether the original devise created an estate limited to lineal succession or one open to all heirs.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Lineal descent follows the direct vertical line from ancestor to descendant. Collateral descent moves sideways through siblings or cousins. The Restatement treats fee simple estates as inheritable by both lines unless the instrument expressly restricts succession.
Supporting sources
No. The phrase and his heirs creates a fee simple that passes to both lineal and collateral heirs under the Restatement definition. Courts reject attempts to narrow the class through extrinsic statements when the deed or will uses standard fee-simple language.
Supporting sources
A grant to a person and the heirs of his body creates a fee tail that restricts succession to lineal descendants. The present holder still enjoys full incidents of ownership comparable to a fee simple, but the estate cannot pass outside the direct bloodline.
Supporting sources
No. The parol evidence rule bars use of contemporaneous oral declarations to contradict the unambiguous words of a recorded deed. Only language inside the instrument can limit the class of heirs.
Supporting sources
…Thereafter, the word “heirs,” when used in a conveyance to a man “and his heirs,” came to include collateral as well as lineal heirs, ultimately indicating that such grantee took an estate which would pass to his heirs or the heirs of anyone to whom he aliened it. That is, “heirs” ceased to be a word of purchase and…