Heir legal

(Civil Law) One who inherits by descent under the law.

In the civil law. A legal heir is one who takes the succession by relationship to the decedent and by force of law. This is different from a testamentary or conventional heir, who takes the succession in virtue of the disposition of man. See Civ. Code La. arts. 873, 875. The term is also used in Anglo-American law in substantially the same sense, that is, the person to whom the law would give the decedent's property, real and personal, if he should die intestate. Kaiser v. Kaiser, 3 How. Prae. N. S. (N. Y.) 105; Waller v. Martin. 1C6 Tenn. 341, 61 S. W. 73, 82 Am St. Rep. 882

Defined under Heir in Black's Law Dictionary.