Inheritance

An estate in things real, descending to the heir. 2 Bl. Comm. 201; In re Donahue's Estate, 36 Cal. 332; Dodge's Appeal, 106 Pa. 220, 51 Am. Rep. 519; Rountree v. Pursell, 11 Ind. App. 522, 39 N. EL 747; Adams v. Akerlund, 168III. 632, 48 N. E. 454. Such an estate in lands or tenements or other things as may be inherited by the heir. Termes de la Ley. An estate or property which a man has by descent, as heir to another, or which he may transmit to another, as his heir. Litt. § 9. A perpetuity in lands or tenements to a man and his heirs. Cowell; Blount. "Inheritance" is also used in the old books where "hereditament" is now commonly employed. Thus, Coke divides inheritances into corporeal and incorporeal, into real, personal, and mixed, and into entire and several.

In the civil law. The succession of the heir to all the rights and property of the estate-leaver. It is either testamentary, where the heir is created by will, or ab intestato, where it arises merely by operation of law. Heinec. § 484.

— Estate of inheritance. See Estate

— Inheritance aet. The English statute of 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 106, by which the law of inheritance or descent has been considerably modified. 1 Steph. Comm. 359, 500.

— Inheritance tax. A tax on the transfer or passing of estates or property by legacy, devise, or intestate succession ; not a tax on the property itself, but on the right to acquire it by descent or testamentary gift. In re Gihon's Estate, 169 N. Y. 443, 62 N. EL 561; Magoun v. Bank. 170 U S. 283, 18 Sup. Ct. 594, 42 In Ed. 1037.