Hæredi-tas jacens

A vacant inheritance. So long as no one had acquired the inheritance, it was termed "hœreditas jacens;" and this, by a legal fiction, represented the person of the decedent. Mackeld. Roin. Law, § 737. The estate of a person deceased, Where the owner left no heirs or legatee to take it, called also "caduca;" an escheated estate. Cod 10. 10, 1; 4 Kent, Comm. 425. The term has also been used in English law to signify an estate in abeyance ; that is, after the ancestor's death, and before assumption of heir. Co.. Litt. 342b. An inheritance without legal owner, and therefore open to the first occupant. 2 Bl. Comm. 259.
—Hœreditas legitima. A succession or inheritance devolving by operation of law (intestate succession) rather than by the will of the decedent. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 654.
—Hœreditas luctuosa. A sad or mournful inheritance or succession ; as that of a parent to the estate of a child, which was regarded as disturbing the natural onier of mortality. (turbato ordme mortalitatis.) Cod. 6, 25, 9; 4 Kent, Comm. 397.
—Hœreditas testamentaria. Testamentary inheritance, that is, succession to an estate under and according to the last will and testament of the decedent. Mackeld Rom. Law, § 654.

Defined under Hæreditas in Black's Law Dictionary.