heir at law

American  

noun

plural

heirs at law

1. a person who inherits, or has a right of inheritance in, the real property of one who has died without leaving a valid will.

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heir-at-law British  

noun

1. property law the person entitled to succeed to the real property of a person who dies intestate

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Etymology

Origin of heir at law

First recorded in 1720–30

Example Sentences

The question was—whether, in a property willed in fifteen shares to fifteen people, one of them dying in the testator's lifetime, the lapsed share did not belong to the heir at law.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 56, No. 346, August, 1844 by Various

His effects, amounting to £2,000 and upwards, were appropriated by the noted Eustace Budgell, to the prejudice of the heir at law, under a will attended with circumstances of great suspicion.

From The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 03 Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church — Volume 1 by Swift, Jonathan

What's an heir at law agin a will?

From Nick of the Woods by Bird, Robert M.

I can only say, sir, that I have complete legal evidence that I am heir at law of Gregory, the younger brother of the late Sir Wycherly Wychecombe.

From The Two Admirals by Cooper, James Fenimore

You are his cousin, and his heir at law.

From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Reade, Charles