their case should be handled. The most persuasive view—held by the majority—is that the heirs who share the estate with the missing person are treated in the manner least favorable to them: each is given only the portion that is absolutely certain, and the rest is set aside. Practically, the estate is first divided as though the missing person were alive and then as though he were dead. Anyone whose share differs between the two calculations receives the smaller amount; anyone whose share is identical in both receives his full portion; and anyone who would inherit only under one of the two assumptions receives nothing. The balance remains in suspension until the missing person’s situation is resolved.

That ruling concerns the missing person’s right to inherit from someone else. As for others inheriting from him, once the waiting period expires with no news and the judge declares him dead, his personal estate—together with any part of another estate that had been reserved for him—is distributed among the heirs who are alive at the moment of that declaration, excluding those who died during the waiting period. This is because the legal death of the missing person is ruled after the deaths that occurred in the interim, and a basic condition of inheritance is that the heir be alive after the deceased.