presumption of survivorship

American  

noun

Law.

1. a presumption that one of two or more related persons was the last to die in a common disaster, made so that the estates may be settled and the final heirs determined.

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Example Sentences

The case revolved around the rarely used section 184 of the 1925 Law of Property Act, which deals with the “presumption of survivorship” in multiple fatalities.

From The Guardian

Presumption of Survivorship.—When two or more related persons perish in a common accident, it may be necessary, in order to decide questions of succession, to determine which of them died first.

From Project Gutenberg