Descent

Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance or by any act of law, as distinguished from "purchase." Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as his heir at law. 2 Bl. Comm. 201; Com. Dig. "Descent," A; Adams v. Akerlund, 168 III. 632, 48 N. E. 454; Starr v. Hamilton, 22 Fed. Cas. 1,107; In re Donahue's Estate, 36 Cal. 332 ; Shippen v. Izard, 1 Serg. & R. (Pat) 224; Brower v. Hunt, 18 Ohio St. 338; Allen v. Bland, 134 Ind. 78, 33 N. E. 774. Classification. Descents are of two sorts, lineal and collateral. Lineal descent is descent in a direct or right line, as from father or grandfather to son or grandson. Collateral descent is descent in a collateral or oblique line, that is, up to the common ancestor and then down from him, as from brother to hrother, or between cousins. Levy v. McCartee, 6 Pet. Il2, 8 L. Ed. 334. They are also distinguished into mediate and immediate descents. But these terms are used in different senses. A descent may be said to be a mediate or immediate descent of the estate or right; or it may be said to be mediate or immediate, in regard to the mediateness or immediateness of the pedigree or consanguinity. Thus, a descent from the grandfather, who dies in possession, to the grandchild, the father being then dead, or from the uncle to the nephew, the brother being dead, is, in the for mer sense, in law, immediate descent, although the one is collateral and the other lineal; for the heir is in the per, and not in the per and cui. On the other hand, with reference to the line of pedigree or consanguinity, a descent is often said to be immediate, when the ancestor from whom the party derives his blood is immediate, and without any intervening link or degrees; and mediate, when the kindred is derived from him mediante altero, another ancestor intervening between them. Thus a descent in lineals from father to son is in this sense immediate ; but a descent from grandfather to grandson, the father being dead, or from uncle to nephew, the brother being dead, is deemed mediate; the father and the brother being, in these latter cases, the medium, deferens, as it is called, of the descent or consanguinity. Levy v. McCartee, 6 Pet. 112, 8 h. Ed. 334 ; Fu renes v. Mickelson, 86 Iowa, 508, 53 N. W. 4l6; Garner v. Wood, 71 Md. 37, 17 Atl. 103L Descent was denoted, in the Roman law, by the term "successio," which is also used by Bracton, and from which has been derived the succession of the Scotch and French jurisprudence.

— Descent cast. The devolving of realty upon the heir on the death of his ancestor intestate.