Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Re: Deeds

I am very certain it is a mistake.

It should have said "widow and heirs."

However, this raises an interesting question of what the result is of such an effect.

It would be possible, not certain but possible, that a court could be asked, successfully, to "reform" the deed. That is, order it corrected to say what it obviously was meant to say.

Because there is no other known meaning of this phrase (luckily) (unless Aires is a first name -- oddly there is a first name Aires is a rare name, but an actual name), the obvious meaning of the deed would probably be implemented.

It was not always so. And I cannot guarantee it here, either.

In ancient times, the error would have been fatal and the results unpredictable. (That is, do you strike only that word, the entire sentence, the entire paragraph, or the entire document?)

But I think the modern trend would be to figure out what it "really" means and overlook the error.