Preterition Law and Legal Definition
Preterition is the action of a testator not mentioning the name of an heir in a will. The term means disregarding or passing by. Pretertion means the omission made by the testator to mention one or more legal heirs names in his/her will. The heir or heirs may otherwise be entitled to the property if not omitted by the testator in the will. Such a will can be brought before the court by the aggrieved heirs to invalidate it. However, if there is evidence that the testator omitted the names of some legal heirs deliberately the will can be considered valid.
