Definition
INV is a Latin abbreviation appearing in older legal texts and manuscripts, most commonly standing for one of two terms depending on context:
1. Intrusio — the Latin form of the common law term "intrusion," denoting a wrongful entry upon land by a stranger after the death of a tenant for life, before the party entitled in remainder or reversion has made their entry.
2. Inventarium — occasionally abbreviated INV in ecclesiastical and probate records, referring to an inventory of a decedent's estate.
The intrusion sense is the more doctrinally significant of the two. At common law, intrusion (intrusio) arose specifically when a life estate ended by the tenant's death and a stranger — someone with no colorable title — entered the land before the remainderman or reversioner could take possession. The rightful heir or successor could bring a real action to recover the land against such an intruder.
Common Confusion
Intrusion (intrusio) is easily confused with two related common law actions: abatement and discontinuance. Abatement occurred when a stranger entered upon lands after the ancestor's death but before the heir made entry, cutting off the heir's possessory right. Discontinuance arose when a tenant in tail or other limited owner conveyed a larger estate than they were entitled to convey, thereby interrupting the proper succession. INV/intrusio is the narrowest of these concepts: it applies specifically to the stranger's entry in the window between a life tenant's death and the remainderman's or reversioner's entry, not to heirs generally, and not to a wrongful conveyance.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter INV as a marginalia abbreviation or interlinear notation in manuscript sources, early printed law books, and abridgments. Its meaning is entirely context-dependent: in a treatise on real property or feudal tenure, INV almost certainly abbreviates intrusio; in an ecclesiastical court record, probate document, or notarial instrument, it likely abbreviates inventarium.
The intrusio meaning is particularly important for researchers navigating sources on real property actions. Littleton's Tenures (section 277) and Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium provide the foundational treatments; Coke's elaboration in the Institutes and Blackstone's Commentaries carry the doctrine into the 18th century. Stephens' Commentaries (3 Steph. Com. 483) offers a later synthesis. Researchers consulting these works should watch for the abbreviation appearing in marginal notes, cross-references, and tables of writs, where space compression made abbreviation standard practice.
For probate researchers, INV as inventarium appears in surrogate court records, chancery files, and ecclesiastical registers — especially in colonial American and English records prior to the 19th century. In these records, INV may head a list of goods and chattels appraised for estate administration purposes.
The abbreviation carries no modern statutory or procedural significance. Its value is entirely historical and navigational.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary addresses the underlying term intrusio directly, defining it by reference to Littleton (section 277), Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium (203–204), Comyns' Digest (169), and Stephens' Commentaries (3 Steph. Com. 483). Burrill's treatment confirms that the technical sense of intrusio was sharply distinguished from the common term "intruder" in general speech: the law confined intrusio to the specific scenario of entry by a stranger after a life tenant's death and before the remainderman's or reversioner's entry. The stranger in this scenario was termed, in Burrill's words, an "intruder" in the strict technical sense. Burrill does not address INV as an abbreviation for inventarium, reflecting the dictionary's focus on common law real property doctrine rather than probate or ecclesiastical practice. Researchers relying solely on Burrill for the inventarium meaning will find no support there and should consult probate-specific references and ecclesiastical law dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
The doctrine of intrusio was a creature of English common law real property and was received into American law primarily in states with strong common law inheritance traditions, though the abolition of real actions in most American jurisdictions by the mid-19th century rendered the doctrine largely obsolete. The inventarium abbreviation has broader reach across civil law, canon law, and common law jurisdictions wherever probate and estate administration records were kept in Latin.