from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
OPERATION OF LAW. This term is applied to those rights which are cast upon a
party by the law, without any act of his own; as, the right to an estate of
one who dies intestate, is cast upon the heir at law, by operation of law;
when a lessee for life enfeoffs him in reversion, or when the lessee and
lessor join in a feoffment, or when a lessee for life or years accepts a new
lease or demise from the lessor, there is a surrender of the first lease by
operation of law. 9 B. & C. 298; 5 B. & C. 269; 2 B. & A. 119; 5 Taunt. 518.