universal inheritance rule
universal-inheritance rule. Wills & estates. A doctrine holding that an intestate estate escheats to the state only if the decedent leaves no surviving relatives, no matter how distant. • Through the first half of the 20th century, this rule was broadly followed in American jurisdictions. The Uniform Probate Code abandons the universal-inheritance rule and provides that if no member of the third or a nearer parentela survives the decedent, the intestate estate escheats to the state. — Also termed rule of universal inheritance. See PARENTELA. Cf. laughing heir under HEIR; GRADUAL METHOD.
