How did Sirius get the Grimmauld Place?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 131647

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Brenda M."
<Agent_Maxine_is at h...> wrote:
> ... How did Sirius really get his parent's  house?
> 
> Yes, it goes to the last living Black, who was him, but he was 
> disowned. Wiped from the Black family tree. Not to be given a cent
> of their money. Normally, if one is dead and the other disowned 
> (meaning he wasn't alive in the first place, in their minds), then 
> shouldn't the inheritance go to Narcissa or Andromeda? And if it can
> be handed only to males, shouldn't it all go straight to Draco, the 
> only male left  with Black blood?
> 
> I found this puzzling, at any rate.
> 
>Brenda

bboyminn:

We have discussed the Black Estate before and here is what I have come
away with. 

First are 'Entailments' which are legal conditions tied to an estate
that can have legal precedence that can be applied across centuries,
in some cases applied to an estate forever. These legal precedents
usually limit and control who can get the inheritance and under what
conditions, and details what they are allowed to do with the estate.
This is usually done in an attempt to preserve the family fortune and
prevent it from being diluted with each subsequent death and
dispersement by inheritance. Most commonly, the first born son gets
everything, with only occassional minor amounts to other brothers and
sisters.

Further, this same condition of the first born male getting
everything, is part of Old English Common Law. Again, to prevent the
family fortune from being diluted.

So, it would take a legal event of substantial magnitude to prevent
Sirius from having undisputed claim to the Black Family Estate.
Disowned or not disowned, there would be huge legal precedents in his
favor. There may be legal directives and entailments, that transend
the wishes of the immediate generation of Blacks.

I know there are others here who know more about this than I do, so if
 I'm off base, please feel free to correct me.

Steve/bboyminn
who is worried that he may have misused 'precedence' and 'precedents'.