succession

The devolution of title to property under the law of descent and distribution. The act or right of legal or official investment with a predecessor's office, dignity, possession, or functions; also the legal or actual order of so succeeding from that which is or is to be vested or taken. The word when applied to realty denotes persons who take by will or inheritance and excludes those who take by deed, grant, gift, or any form of purchase or contract. Olsan Bros. v. Miller, Tex.Civ. App., 108 S.W.2d 856, 857.

Although "succession" is defined in statute as the acquisition of title to the property of one who dies without disposing of it by will, the word frequently possesses the somewhat broader meaning of the acquisition of rights upon the death of another. In re Russell's Estate, 17 C.A.3d 758, 95 Cal.Rptr. 88, 95.

The right by which one group of persons may, by succeeding another group, acquire a property in all the goods, movables, and other chattels of a corporation. The power of perpetual succession is one of the peculiar properties of a corporation.

See perpetual.

See also descent

- devise

- inheritance

- intestate

- successor

- testamentary.

Civil Law and Louisiana

The fact of the transmission of the rights, estate, obligations, and charges of a deceased person to his heir or heirs. The right by which the heir can take possession of the decedent's estate. The right of the heir to step into the place of the deceased, with respect to the possession, control, enjoyment, administration, and settlement of all the latter's property, rights, obligations, charges, etc. The estate of a deceased person, comprising all kinds of property owned or claimed by him, as well as his debts and obligations, and considered as a legal entity (according to the notion of the Roman law) for certain purposes, such as collecting assets and paying debts. The transmission of the rights and obligations of the deceased to the heirs, also the estates, rights, and charges which a person leaves after his death, whether the property exceeds the charges or the charges exceed the property, or whether he has only left charges without any property. The succession not only includes the rights and obligations of the deceased as they exist at the time of his death, but all that has accrued thereto since the opening of the succession, as also the new charges to which it becomes subject. The coming in of another to take the property of one who dies without disposing of it by will.

General

@ artificial succession

That attribute of a corporation by which, in contemplation of law, the company itself remains always the same though its constituent members or stockholders may change from time to time. Hereditary succession. Descent or title, by descent at common law; the title whereby a man on the death of his ancestor acquires his estate by right of representation as his heir at law.

+ artificial succession

The succession between predecessors and successors in a corporation aggregate or sole

@ intestate succession

The succession of an heir at law to the property and estate of his ancestor when the latter has died intestate, or leaving a will which has been annulled or set aside.

+ intestate succession

A succession is called "intestate" when the deceased has left no will or when his will has been revoked or annulled as irregular. In such case the property of the deceased will be disposed of under the laws of descent and distribution.

See also intestate

- descent

- devise

- inheritance

- intestate.

@ irregular succession

That which is established by law in favor of certain persons, or of the state, in default of heirs, either legal or instituted by testament.

@ legal succession

That which the law establishes in favor of the nearest relation of a deceased person.

See descent.

@ natural succession

Succession taking place between natural persons, for example, in descent on the death of an ancestor.

@ testamentary succession

In the civil law, that which results from the institution of an heir in a testament executed in the form prescribed by law.

See testamentary.

@ testate succession

Passing of property to another by will.

+ testate succession

Acquisition of property or rights through a will

@ vacant succession

Such exists when no one claims it, or when all the heirs are unknown, or when all the known heirs to it have renounced it. Civ.Code La. art. 1095. Simmons v. Saul, 138 U.S. 439, 11 S.Ct. 369, 34 L.Ed. 1054

- succession duty or tax

@