The New International Encyclopædia/Decedent

​DECE′DENT (Lat. decedens, from decedere, to depart, die). Strictly, a dying person; in English and American law, a deceased person—the term being employed only in connection with the passing of the estate of such person, or the administration thereof. When the estate in question is disposed of by will, the decedent is properly described as ‘testator,’ or ‘devisor,’ and thus the term decedent has come to be commonly appropriated to a person dying intestate. As thus restricted, decedents’ estates come under the operation of two distinct sets of rules, which, though now usually embodied in statute form, do not depart in essential particulars from the common-law doctrines in which they originated. These rules are, first, that the real estate of a decedent shall descend to his heir, and, second, that his personal property shall pass to his personal representative for purposes of administration and distribution. This personal representative may or may not be a person entitled to share in the ultimate distribution of the property, and under some circumstances the duty of administration is undertaken by the State. In the early history of the law in England it devolved upon the Church, the right of administering upon the estate of a decedent being vested in the bishop of the diocese in which he died, such administration, together with the probate of wills, constituting an important part of the ordinary jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. This jurisdiction has now been assumed by the High Court of Justice in England. In the United States it is commonly exercised by local tribunals of the rank of county courts, known, variously, as surrogates’ courts, probate courts, orphans’ courts, and the like. See those titles; also Descent; Distribution; Heir; Personal Representative; Executor; Administration.