DECE'DENT (Lat. deccdens, from dreederc, 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 com monly 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 per sonal representative for purposes of administra tion and distribution. This personal representa
tive may or may not he a person entitled to share in the ultimate distribution of the property. and under some circumstances the duty of adminis tration 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 tested in the bishop of the diocese in which he died, such together with the probate of wills, constituting, an important part of the or dinary 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 tribunals of the rank of county courts. known. variously. as surrogates' courts, probate courts, orphans' courts. and the like. See those titles; also