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Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
adj. This word is used, in the vernacular sense, in legal phrases. Last heir. In English real-property law, signifies the person to whom lands came by escheat for want of lawful heirs.
Last sickness
The illness of which a person dies.
Last -will
Among wills, the one latest made has preference, and revokes previous ones. Hence the expression last will is often used for the will which takes effect, the operative will; and in this use "last" is redundant: it adds tiothing to the meaning, or, rather, is fairly implied in " will." If several wills are in contemplation, the phrase, of course, designates the one made after others.