Operation of law

The manner in which an individual acquires certain rights or liabilities through no act or cooperation of his or her own, but merely by the application of the established legal rules to the particular transaction.

For example, when an individual dies intestate, the laws of Descent and Distribution provide for the inheritance of the estate by the heir. The property of the decedent is said to be transferred by operation of law.

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operation of law n. a change or transfer which occurs automatically due to existing laws and not an agreement or court order. Examples: a joint tenant obtains full title to real property when the other joint tenant dies, a spouse in a community property state will take title to all community property if the spouse dies without a will that leaves some of the dead mate's interest in the community property to another, or a guardianship of a minor ad litem (for purposes of a lawsuit) ends automatically upon the child turning 18.

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OPERATION OF LAW. This term is applied to those rights which are cast upon a party by the law, without any act of his own; as, the right to an estate of one who dies intestate, is cast upon the heir at law, by operation of law; when a lessee for life enfeoffs him in reversion, or when the lessee and lessor join in a feoffment, or when a lessee for life or years accepts a new lease or demise from the lessor, there is a surrender of the first lease by operation of law. 9 B. & C. 298; 5 B. & C. 269; 2 B. & A. 119; 5 Taunt. 518.