Title IV.

- SUCCESSION
CHAPTER 1
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Art. 774. Succession is a mode of acquisition

by virtue of which the property, rights and obligations
to the extent of the value of the inheritance,
of a person
are transmitted through his death to another or others
either by his will or by operation of law. (n)

Art. 775. In this Title, "decedent" is the general term applied to the person
whose property is transmitted through succession,
whether or not he left a will.
If he left a will, he is also called the testator. (n)

Art. 776. The inheritance includes all the property, rights and obligations of a person
which are not extinguished by his death. (659)

Art. 777. The rights to the succession are transmitted

from the moment of the death of the decedent. (657a)

Art. 778. Succession may be:

(1) Testamentary;
(2) Legal or intestate; or
(3) Mixed. (n)

Art. 779. Testamentary succession

is that which results from the designation of an heir,
made in a will executed in the form prescribed by law. (n)

Art. 780. Mixed succession

is that effected partly by will and partly by operation of law. (n)

Art. 781. The inheritance of a person

includes not only the property and the transmissible rights and obligations
existing at the time of his death,
but also those which have accrued thereto since the opening of the succession. (n)

Art. 782. An heir is a person called to the succession

either by the provision of a will or by operation of law.

Devisees and legatees are persons

to whom gifts of real and personal property are respectively given
by virtue of a will. (n)