nemo est heres viventis

Latin

Alternative forms

• vīventis nēmō est hērēs

Etymology

Of uncertain specific origin; current as a maxim across Western Europe by the 16th–17th centuries, in both England and the Continent. Later treated as a precept of common law, though its occasional ascription to the 13th-century English jurist Bracton is spurious.

Proverb

nēmō est hērēs vīventis (New Latin, law)

1. “No one is heir of a living person”: the inheritance of an estate is decided only upon the death of its owner, and nobody is “heir” while that person is alive (only heir apparent or heir presumptive).
   • 1595, Joachim Mynsinger von Frundeck (citing Mario Salamoni degli Alberteschi), Apotelesma, sive Corpus Perfectum Scoliorum, ad Quatuor Libros Institutionum Iuris Ciuilis, page 285:

     Suum enim nasci dicimus, qui post mortem nascitur: quoniam sicut viuentis nemo est haeres, ita nemo testatori viuo suus haeres nascitur.

     Indeed, we say that his [heir] is born, when [the heir] is born after his death: for just as no one is heir of a living person, so no one is born heir to a living testator.