ESCHEAT

Escheat

Escheat is a common law doctrine which transfers the property of a person who dies without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a number of situations where a legal interest in land was destroyed by operation of law, so that the ownership of the land reverted to the immediately superior feudal lord.

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Escheat
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escheat

Noun

  1. The return of property of a deceased person to the state (originally to a feudal lord) where there are no legal heirs or claimants.
  2. The property so reverted.
  3. Plunder, booty.
  4. That which falls to one; a reversion or return.

Verb

  1. To revert to a state or lord because its previous owner died without an heir.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: escheat
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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