Law Dictionary of Legal Terminology

HEIR, TESTAMENTARY

HEIR, TESTAMENTARY, civil law. A testamentary heir is one who is constituted heir by testament executed in the form prescribed by law. He is so called to distinguish him from the legal heirs, who are called to the succession by the law; and from conventional heirs, who are so constituted by a contract inter vivos. See Haeres factus; Devisee.