I. Charges before distribution
Before shares are distributed, identify property belonging to others, funeral and administration expenses properly chargeable to the estate, enforceable debts, and any lawful testamentary dispositions that take priority under the governing system.
II. Spouse and descendants
The surviving spouse's rights shall be distinguished from property already owned by that spouse. Descendants inherit according to degree and representation under the applicable rule.
III. Degrees of kinship
Closer kin ordinarily exclude more remote kin within the same line unless representation or another rule provides otherwise. Degree is determined by the relationship recognized in the received succession system.
IV. Parents and ascendants
Where there are no descendants, parents and other ascendants may enter the succession according to their degree and the applicable distribution rule.
V. Siblings and their descendants
Brothers and sisters, and in recognized cases the descendants of a predeceased sibling, succeed when closer classes are absent or where the rule allows concurrence.
VI. More remote kindred
More remote collateral kin succeed only after the nearer classes are exhausted. Claims should be proved by genealogy, records, witnesses, or other competent evidence.
VII. Bishops and monks
Property belonging to an ecclesiastical office, monastery, or trust is not inherited as the private estate of the officeholder merely because it was under his control. Personal property shall be separated from institutional property.
VIII. Persons formerly in servitude
The historical appendix includes succession rules affected by servitude and manumission. In this House reconstruction those rules remain historical provenance; modern status is governed by the law rejecting human ownership.
IX. Exclusion and incapacity
A person may be excluded only for causes recognized by the governing law. Hostility, rumor, or a stronger heir's desire is insufficient. 27
X. Accounting and distribution
Every person who possesses estate property must account. Concealment, waste, or fraudulent transfer may reduce the wrongdoer's share or create independent liability.