per stirpes

1 definition found

per stirpes - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  PER STIRPES. By stock; by roots. 
       2. When, for example, a man dies intestate, leaving children and 
  grandchildren, whose parents are deceased, the estate is to be divided not 
  per capita, that is, by each of the children and grandchildren taking a 
  share, but per stirpes, by each of the children taking a share, and the 
  grandchildren, the children of a deceased child, taking a share to be 
  afterwards divided among themselves per capita.