408 COMPARATIVE LAW 



article used for house-worship, and the family tombs constitutes the 

 special right of succession to the headship of a house." 



This important provision means that those things which are speci- 

 fied therein form the special objects of inheritance. They cannot 

 be bequeathed away, nor can they be seized for debts. 



Though the house is no longer a corporation, as was formerly 

 the case, it is still a legal entity whose continuance is assured by 

 law, and does not break up at the death of each house-head. So 

 there can be only one heir to its headship, and the new Civil Code 

 recognizes many kinds of heirs to house-headship in order to pro- 

 vide against the contingency of the failure of the heir. They are: 

 (1) "the Legal Heir"; (2) "the Appointed Heir"; (3) "the Chosen 

 Heir"; and (4) "the Ascendant Heir." The legal heir, who comes 

 first in the order of succession, is the lineal descendant of a house-head, 

 who is at the same time a member of his house. Among lineal descend- 

 ants, nearest kinsmen are preferred to more remote, males to females, 

 and legitimate children to illegitimate, seniors in age being always 

 accorded priority when they are equal in other respects. (Civil Code, 

 art. 970.) Modern writers on law usually give as a reason for the pre- 

 ference of nearer to remoter kinsmen that the order of succession is 

 determined by the degree of affection which the deceased is presumed 

 to have entertained toward his relatives, and also by the presumed 

 intention of the person who dies intestate as to the disposition of his 

 property. For the preference of males over females feudal reasons 

 are often given. These reasons also form the principal basis of our 

 present law. But the reasons for the existence of the rule and its 

 origin are not always the same. Originally, the nearest in blood to the 

 ancestors worshiped and their male descendants were preferred, 

 because they were considered to be the fittest persons to offer sacri- 

 fices to the spirits of ancestors. 



The legal heir is heres necessarius and is not allowed to renounce 

 the succession, whilst other kinds of heirs are at liberty to accept 

 or renounce the inheritance, or to accept it with the reservation 

 that they shall not be liable for the debts of their predecessors. It 

 is the bounden duty of a descendant who is the legal heir to accept 

 the inheritance and continue the sacra of the house. 



The house-head cannot bequeath away from him more than one 

 half of the property (Civil Code, art. 1130), nor can he disinherit 

 him, unless there exist one of the grounds mentioned in article 975 

 of the Civil Code. The causes especially mentioned there are : 



(1) 111 treatment or gross insult to the house-head, (2) unfitness 

 for house-headship on account of bodily or mental infirmities, (3) 

 sentence to punishment for an offense of a nature disgraceful to the 

 name of the house, and (4) interdiction as a spendthrift. These 

 grounds relate directly to the house-head's authority and indirectly 



