KIN, NEXT OF. When a person dies intestate. leaving personal property, such property devolves upon and belongs to the next of kin, who are the blood. relatives of the deceased. The law has declared a certain order of precedence among next of kin, which is not exactly the same in the three kingdoms. The degrees of kindred are divided into lineal and collateral. The lineal consists of the ascending, such as father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, paternal and maternal, and so on ad infinitum; and the descending, such as son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, and so on ad infinitum. The collateral kindred consists of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and the children of such ad infinittem. The mode by winch the civil law computed the propinquity of degree was this: it allowed one degree for each person in the line of descent exclusively of him from whom the computation begins, and in the direct line counted the degrees from the deceased to his relative; but as regards collaterals, it counted the sum of the degrees from the deceased to the common ancestor, and from the common ancestor to the relatives. Thus, a brother was in the second degree, counting one to the father, and one from the father to the brother; a nephew, and also an uncle, .a great-grandfather and a great grandson, were all in the third degree; a son and a father were in the first degree; and so on. This mode of computing the degrees of kindred has been adopted in the law of England and Ireland.
When a person dies intestate, leavino. personal property, there are two classes of rights to which the next-of kin are entitled: one is the right to administer the estate, or to take out letters of administration; the other is the right to a share of the property itself. As regards the right of administration, the widow or next of kin may be selected,. both or either. But the next of kin, those are to be preferred who arc nearest irn degree according to the above computation: thus, a son or father is preferred to a. brother, grandfather, or grandson; and these to a nephew, uncle, great-grandson, or great-grandfather; and so on. As regards the more valuable right of a share in the prop erty, the rule is, that if there is a widow surviving, and also issue of the deceased, who. are in that case the next of kin, then two-thirds of the property go to the next of kin; if there are no issue, but a widow survives, then one-half only goes to the next of kin; but if there is no widow surviving, then the whole goes to the next of kin. But the next of
kin take according to the statute of distributions, which slightly differs from the order of the civil law as to the degrees Of priority: thus, the children exclusively take the whole, if children survive; if some of the children are.dead, leaving issue, then the issue collectively of each dead child take an equal share with the living children, by what in called the principle of representation. If there are none nearer than grandchildren, all. take an equal share, and the issue of a deceased grandchild also take one of such shares. After all the children and grandchildren are dead without issue, _then the father, if alive, is entitled to the whole. If he also is dead, then the mother, the living brothers and sis ters (together with the issue of deceased brothers and sisters collectively), take each one share. After these are dead, then grandfathers and grandmothers, paternal and. maternal, and nephews and nieces, if alive, take each a share. The right of represen tation, i.e., the right of the children of a deceased person being one of a class (and I•ho, if alive, would have been one of the next of kin), to represent him, and take his share, applies as far as the children of brothers and sisters, but no further. The heir-at-law, if of equal degree, is one of the next of kin, and takes his share with the rest, though he also gets all the real estate. The half-blood counts among the next of kin equally with, the whole blood.
In Scotland the rules of priority among the next of kin vary considerably from the above order, which prevails iu England and Ireland. The children being entitled to an absolute legal share called legitim (q.v.), take the father's property in two characters— one part as legitim, the other as being next of kin—and the result is often different from what obtains in England. Moreover, in Scotland, though the heir-at-law may be one of the next of kin, still he is not entitled to take such share unless he collate (q.v.) the herit able estate. The degrees of kindred are not counted in exactly the same, way. The father never can take more than one-half, nor the mother than one-third, while any of the brothers and sisters, or their issue, are alive. The half-blood does not.share equally with, but in an inferior degree to the full blood.