Legal Definitions - by operation of law

The phrase by operation of law describes a legal consequence or effect that occurs automatically due to existing statutes, legal principles, or precedents, rather than as a result of an agreement between parties, a specific action taken by an individual, or a court order. It signifies that the law itself dictates the outcome, often without the need for any deliberate action from the people involved.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Inheritance Without a Will: Imagine a situation where an individual passes away without having created a valid will. In this case, their assets are not distributed according to their personal wishes (as none were formally expressed) or by agreement among their family members. Instead, the state's intestacy laws automatically dictate who inherits the property and in what proportions. The transfer of ownership from the deceased to their heirs happens by operation of law, as the law steps in to determine the distribution.

• Merger of Property Interests: Consider a scenario where a person is renting an apartment and later decides to purchase that very same apartment building from their landlord. Once the tenant becomes the owner of the property they were leasing, their leasehold interest (as a tenant) and their ownership interest (as the landlord) merge. The lease agreement doesn't need to be formally terminated by either party; it automatically ceases to exist because a person cannot legally be both landlord and tenant of the same property simultaneously. This merger and the termination of the lease occur by operation of law.

• Automatic Dissolution of a Partnership: Suppose two individuals are partners in a business, and one of them unexpectedly dies. Unless their partnership agreement specifically outlines a different arrangement for such an event, the death of a partner often automatically triggers the legal dissolution of the partnership by operation of law. The partnership, as a legal entity, ceases to exist in its original form, even if the surviving partner intends to continue the business or if there's no formal agreement to dissolve it. The law dictates this change in the partnership's legal status.