In Roman law. The hareditas was a universal succession by law to any deceased person, whether such person had died testate or intestate, and whether in trust (ex ftdeicommisso) for another or not The like succession according to Praetorlan law was honorum possessio. The hareditos was called “jaceaa,” until the hares took it up, i.e., made his aditio hareditatis; and such hares, if a suus hares, had the right to abstain, (potestas abstinendi,) and. if an extraneua hares, had the right to consider whether he would accept or decline, (potestas deliberandi,) the reason for this precaution being that (prior to Justinian’s enactment to the contrary) a hares after his aditio was liable to the full extent of the debts of the deceased person, and could have no relief therefrom, except in the case of a damnum emergens or damnosa hareditas, i.e., an hareditus which disclosed (after the aditio) some enormous unsuspected liability. Brown. In old English law. An estate transmissible by descent; an inheritance. Co. Litt. 9. Haereditas damnosa. A burdensome inheritance; one which would be a burden instead of a benefit, that is. the debts to be paid by the heir would exceed the assets. Hsereditas jacens. A vacant inheritance. So long as no one had acquired the inheritance, it was termed “hareditas jacens;” and this, by a legal fiction, represented the person of the decedent. Mackeld. Rom. Law, s 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. 8426. An inheritance without legal owner, and therefore open to the first occupant 2 Bl. Comm. 259. Haereditas legitime. A succession or inheritance devolving by operation of law (intestate succession) rather than by the will of the decedent. Mackeld. Rom. Law, s 654. Hsereditas luetuosa. 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 order of mortality. iturbato ordine mortalitatis.) Cod. 6, 25, 9; 4 Kent, Comm. 397. Haereditas testamentaria. Testamentary inheritance, that is, succession to an estate under and according to the last will and testament of the decedent Mackeld. Rom. Law, s 654. Haereditas, alia corporalis, alia incorporalis; corporalis est, quse tangi potest et videri; incorporalis quae tangi non potest nee videri. Co. Litt. 9. An inheritance is either corporeal or incorporeal. Corporeal is that which can be touched and seen; incorporeal, that which can neither be touched nor seen. Haereditas est successio in universum jus quod defunctus habuerat. Co. Litt 237. Inheritance is the succession to every right which the deceased had. Haereditas nihil aliud est quam successio in universum jus, quod defunctus habuerat. The right of inheritance is nothing else than the faculty of succeeding to all the rights of the deceased. Dig. 50,17, 62. Haereditas nunquam ascendit. An inheritance never ascends. Olanv. lib. 7, a 1;
2 Bl. Comm. 211. A maxim of feudal origin, and which invariably prevailed in the law of England down to the passage of the statute. 3 A 4 Wm. IV. c. 106. 6, by which it was abrogated. 1 Steph. Comm. 378. See Broom, Max. 527, 52a. Haeredum appellatione veniunt haeredes haeredum in infinitum. By the title of heirs, come the heirs of heirs to infinity. Co. Litt 9.