Inheriting Property when there is no Will.

See update at the bottom of the post.

As part of the updated Oregon Probate law, the Oregon legislature updated and clarified the definitions for inheriting property. 

For those who want to get technical, the amended language of the statute is:

ORS 112.065 is amended to read: 112.065. “Representation” means the method of determining the passing of the net intestate estate when the distributees are of  different generations in relation to the decedent. Representation is accomplished as follows: The estate shall be divided into as many shares as there are surviving heirs of the generation closest in relation to the decedent and deceased persons of the same generation who left issue who survive the decedent, each surviving heir of the nearest generation in relation to the decedent receiving one share and the share of each deceased person of the same generation being divided among the issue of the deceased person in the same manner.

The definition of Generation is:

ORS 111.005 (18) “Generation” means a group of human beings, living or deceased, that constitute a single step in the line of descent from an ancestor.

For example:  Grandma dies without a will.  She has three children (Child A, B, and C.)  Child C died but before dying had 3 grandchildren.  The shares of the estate will be divided as follows:  Child A receives 1/3; Child B receives 1/3; and the children of Child C receive 1/3 .  Each grandchild of Child C receives 1/9 each of the total estate.

Updated:  I reread the post after Paul Wick's comment below and realized what I had written wasn't clear.  There is no change to how the mechanics of Oregon inheritance law works, just that the definitions are simplified to more closely align with common usage.