Capita,

Capita, DISTRIBUTION PER, is a familiar expression in the law relating to wills and succession. It means that where the persons claiming under a will consist of, e.g. three families of grandchildren, the estate or fund is divided equally among all the grandchildren (whatever the size of the family), and not equally among the three families. The opposite principle of division, viz. among families, is called distribution per stirpes. It is surprising how frequently testators fail to make their meaning clear on this simple point.