Disinheritance

The act by which a person deprives his heir of an inheritance, who, without such act, would inherit. By the common law (since the statute of wills) any one may give his estate to a stranger, and thereby disinherit his heir apparent. Cooper, Justin.

495; 7 East 106.

An heir cannot be disinherited by mere words of exclusion, but the entire property of the testator must be given to some one else by express words or by necessary implication; Phillips v. Phillips, 93 Ky. 498, 20 S. W. 541; Chamberlain v. Taylor, 105 N. Y. 185, 11 N. E. 625; Gallagher v. Crooks, 132 N. Y. 338, 30 N. E, 746; Hancock's Appeal, 112 Pa. 532, 5 Atl. 56; and where a will provides that a gift therein is to be the entire share of an heir, he is not excluded from a share of property not disposed of by the will; Sutherland v. Sydnor, 84 Va. 880, 6 S. E. 480, even though the will shows that the testator believed he was disposing of all his property; id. A testamentary writing which revokes all other wills, and excludes a son from any share of the estate, for reasons given, but does not dispose of the propertv, does not affect the rights of such son; Coffman v. Coffman, 85 Va. 459, 8 S. E. 672, 2 L. R. A. 848, 17 Am. St. Rep. 69. In a case of doubt the law leans to a distribution of the estate of a deceased person as nearly conforming to the rules of inheritance as possible.