The New International Encyclopædia/Representation (law)

REPRESENTATION. In law, a statement or assertion as to some matter of fact. Representations have significance in a legal sense when they are acted upon. Such representations may be made as the basis of numerous legal transactions. See Deceit; Fraud; Caveat Emptor; Condition; Sale; Warranty, etc.

In the law of inheritance the term representation is also used to denote the principle upon which the issue of a deceased person take or inherit the share of an estate which their immediate ancestor would have inherited had he been living. Thus if one dies leaving two children and the children of a deceased child surviving him, the children will each inherit one-third of the real estate of the deceased and the other third will go to the children of the deceased child who are said to take by representation. See Administration (in Law).