HEIR, LEGAL. In Civil Law. A legal heir is one who is of the same bloJd as the deceased, and who takes the succession by force of law. This is different from a testamentary or conventional heir, who takes the succession in virtue of the disposition of man. See. La. Civ. Code, art. 873, 875; Dict. de Jurisp. Heritier legitime. There are three classes of legal .heirs, to wit : the children and other lawful descendants, the fathers and mothers and other lawful ascendants, and the collateral kindred. La. Civ. Code, art. 883.
Chattels which, contrary to the nature of chattels, descend to the heir along with the inheritance, and do not pass to the executor of the last proprietor.
This wend seems to be compounded of heir and loom, that is, a frame, viz. to weave in. Some de rive the word loom from the Saxon tome, or getomo, which sigLifies utensils or vessels generally. How ever this may be, the word loom, by time, is drawn to a more general signification than it at the first did bear, comprehending all implements of household, as tables, presses, cupboards, bedsteads, wainscots, and which, by the custom of some countries, hav ing belonged te a house, are never inventoried after the decease of the owner os chattels, but accrue to the heir with the house itself. Mmshew. The term
heir-looms is applied to those chattels which are con sidered as aonexed and necessary to the enjoyment of an inheritance.
Charters, deeds, and other evidences of the title of the land, together with the box or chest in which they are contained, the keys of a house, and fish in a fish-pond, are heir looms. Coke. Litt. 3 a, 185 b; 7 Coke, 17 b; Croke Eliz. 372; Brooke, Abr. Charters, pl. 13 ; 2 Blackstone, Comm. 28 ; 14 Viner, Abr. 291.