Worthier-Title Doctrine Law and Legal Definition
Worthier Title Doctrine refers to an old common law principle that if a beneficiary of a will receives an identical interest as an heir under the laws of intestacy, the person takes the interest as an heir rather than as a beneficiary.
It also refers to a common law rule that provides that a conveyance of real property by a grantor to another person for life with a limitation to the grantor's heirs creates a reversion in the grantor by which his or her heirs acquire the property only upon the death of the grantor, not upon the death of the person who has been granted the property for life. Descent was considered the worthier title.
This doctrine has been abolished in most states by the Uniform Probate Code.
