177 



LEGACY. 



LEGATE. 



A court-leet may be adjourned if the business of the particular 

 court require it. This should be done by three proclamations. A 

 court held on the 28th April, and adjourned, after the jury had been 

 sworn, till the 15th December, which day was given them to make 

 their presentments, has been held not to be necessarily un- 

 reasonable. 



It is not necessary that notice should be given of an order made ,by 

 the leet for abating a nuisance ; the party being within the jurisdiction, 

 must take notice of it at his peril. For the same reason he is also 

 bound to take notice of a by-law. 



V. Profits of Court. 



The ordinary profits of a court-leet are the fines, amercements, and 

 eesoign pence, and belong, in the case of a public leet or tourn, to the 

 crown ; in the case of a private leet, to the grantee or lord of the leet. 

 It would rather seem, however, that the lord is bound to account at the 

 Exchequer for these profits, though he may discharge himself by show- 

 ing his title. In a private leet also, the lord, as above mentioned, is 

 entitled to a further payment, in the nature of a poll-tax, capitagium, 

 or chevage, by the name of certum letsc, sometimes called cert-silver, 

 certainty-money, cert-money, and head-silver. When this payment is 

 to be made on the day of the leet the defaulters may be presented and 

 amerced. For such amercement the lord may distrain ; but he cannot 

 distrain for the cert-money itself, without a prescription to warrant 

 such distress. In the absence of both amercement and prescription, 

 the lord's remedy is by action of debt. 



LEGACY (Legdtum), a bequest or gift of goods and chattels by will 

 or testament. The person to whom it is given is termed the legatee 

 (legatarius) ; and every person is capable of being a legatee, unless 

 particularly disabled by the common law or by some statute. 



The bequest in no case confers more than an inchoate property on 

 the legatee, which does not become complete until the assent of 

 the executor or administrator with the will annexed, as the case may 

 be, has been given. [EXKCUTOR.] But, before such assent, the bequest 

 is transmissible to the personal representatives of the legatee, and will 

 pass by his will. 



Legacies are of two kinds, general and specific. A legacy is general 

 when it is so given as not to amount to a bequest of a particular thing, 

 or a particular fund of the testator ; a specific legacy is a bequest of a 

 specified thing, or a specific part of the testator's estate. The whole 

 of the estate of a person deceased being liable for the payment of his 

 debts, legacies of both kinds are of course subject to debts : but in 

 case of a deficiency of the estate for the payment of the legacies, the 

 general legatees can only be paid in equal proportion ; and they must, 

 as it is technically termed, abate. But a specific legatee is not com- 

 pelled to abate or allow any thing by way of abatement, though his 

 legacy may be. taken for the payment of debts, in case the general 

 legacies have all been applied to pay them and there is still a deficiency 

 to meet the demands on the estate of the deceased. Specific legatees 

 may, however, be compelled to abate as against one another. If the 

 f the testator's estate which is specifically given has been dis- 

 "f by the testator in his lifetime, or at the time of his death has 

 i to exist in such form as described in his will, the general rule 

 is, that the specific legatee loses his legacy, and is not entitled to any 

 satisfaction out of the general estate : in such case the legacy is said to 

 be adeemed, a term which has been derived from the Roman law, 

 though the word ' adiiuere ' is not there used exactly in this sense. 

 (Diy. 34, 4.) There is also a third description of legacy partaking 

 somewhat of the nature of both kinds already mentioned, as a gift of 

 o much money, with reference to a particular fund for payment. 

 Tliis is called a demonstrative legacy, but so far differs from one properly 

 specific, that if the fund pointed out fails on any account, the legatee 

 will be paid out of the general assets ; yet it is so far specific that it is 

 not liable to abate in case of deficiency of the general assets. 



Legacies may be given either absolutely (purd) or upon condition 

 (sub conditione), or upon the happening of any contingency ; provided 

 it must happen, if at all, within the duration of a life or lives in being 

 at the time of the decease of the testator and twenty-one years after- 

 wards, allowing in addition the period of gestation where the contin- 

 gency depends up >n the birth of a child. Legacies may also be given 

 in such a way that though no condition is expressed in distinct terms, 

 it may be clearly inferred that the testator did not intend his gifts to 

 take effect till a definite time had arrived or a definite event had taken 

 place. When a legatee has obtained such an interest in the legacy as 

 to be^ully entitled to the property in it, the legacy is said to be vetted, 

 i* property may be acquired long before the right to the posses- 

 i the legacy accrues. A vested legacy partakes of the incidents 

 [>erty no far as to be transmissible to the personal representatives 

 of tin; party entitled to it, or to pass by his will ; a legacy which is 

 contingent or not vested is no property at all with respect to the 

 This distinction of legacies, vested or not vested, seems 

 ' 1 from the Roman law, which expresses the fact of vesting by 

 rds ' dies legati cedit.' 



Formerly, in all cases when a legatee died before the testator, the 



legacy lapsed, or failed, and went to the person appointed residuary 



by the testator, or if there was none such, to the next of kin ; 



and hipse might also take place (as already observed with respect to a 



given to a legatee at a particular time, or upon condition, or 



AWTS ASD SCI. tll\. VOI,. V. 



the happening of a contingency) if the legatee died before the 

 appointed time arrived, or if the condition was not performed, or the 

 contingency did not happen. The Wills Act, 1 Viet. c. 26, sect. S3, 

 modified the old rule, and directed that when legacies are bequeathed to 

 a child or other issue of the testator who shall die in his lifetime, 

 leaving issue, and such issue shall be living at the testator's death, the 

 legacies shall not lapse unless a contrary intention appears upon the 

 face of the will, but shall take effect as if the legatee had died im- 

 mediately after the testator. 



The rules by which gifts of legacies are construed are derived from 

 the civil law, or rather are a part of that law, which prevailed in the 

 ecclesiastical courts while those courts had jurisdiction over legacies; 

 for although the Court of Chancery had concurrent jurisdiction with 

 the ecclesiastical courts, yet to prevent confusion it followed the same 

 general rules. If, however, a legacy be charged upon or made payable 

 out of the real estate, then, as the ecclesiastical court had no con- 

 current jurisdiction, courts of equity are not bound to follow the 

 same rules as to the construction of such gifts as in the case of per- 

 sonal estate. 



The questions involved in the law relating to legacies are so nume- 

 rous that it is quite impossible even to notice them in an article 

 of this description ; and as they are chiefly of a technical nature, 

 the reader is referred to the various treatises on that branch of 

 the law. 



Generally speaking an executor cannot be compelled to pay legacies 

 until after the expiration of twelve months from the decease of the 

 testator, and not even then unless the assets should be realised and the 

 debts paid or provided for ; but as the rule is only for the general 

 convenience of executors, if it should appear that all the debts of the 

 testator are paid, the executor may be compelled to pay the legacy 

 before the twelve months have expired. It may be stated, however, 

 as a general rule, that legacies are payable twelve months after the 

 death of a testator, and with interest from that time at 4 per cent., 

 unless the testator has made some special provision as to time of 

 payment and interest. The rule as to the twelve months is taken from 

 the Roman law. It has already been stated in this work [EXECUTOR], 

 that an action at law does not h'e for a legacy, until after the executor 

 has admitted that he has assets iu his hands sufficient to make the 

 payment, or in the case of a specific legacy, has assented to it. But 

 the law may perhaps be more correctly stated thus : Where a specific 

 legacy consists of some determinate chattel, whether real, as a lease for 

 years, or personal, as a particular horse, the legatee, after assent by the 

 executor to the legacy, may take possession of it, or sue for it by 

 action at law ; but where the specific legacy consists of money, &c., 

 and in all cases of general and of demonstrative legacies, no action at 

 law lies unless the executor has, for some new consideration beneficial 

 to himself, expressly promised payment. As a general rule, therefore, 

 it may be stated that the remedies by legatees against executors are 

 afforded by the courts of equity. (Roper On Legacies ; Williams On 

 Executori.) 



On the subject of legacies (legata) under the Roman law, Gaius (ii., 

 192-255) and the Kget, h'b. xxx.,xxxi., xxxii., ' De Legatis et Fidei 

 commissis,' are the authorities. This is one of the subjects on which 

 the Roman jurisconsults have most successfully exercised their saga- 

 city and diligence. 



LEGACY DUTIES. [PROBATE DUTIES.] 



LEGATE (from the Latin, Legiitus). This word had various signi- 

 fications among the Romans. The legates were the chief assistants of 

 the proconsuls and proprietors in the administration of the provinces. 

 The number of legates differed according to the quality of the governor 

 whom they accompanied ; their duties consisted in hearing inferior 

 causes and managing all the smaller affairs of the government. They 

 appear to have been chosen and appointed by the governor, though at 

 the first institution of the office it would seem they were selected by the 

 senate, as advisers to the governor, from the wisest and most prudent 

 of their own body. The word legatus also signified a military officer 

 who was next in rank to the general or commander-in-chief in any 

 expedition or undertaking, and in his absence had the chief command. 

 (Caesar, ' De Bell. Civ., 1 ii., 17.) The word legatus is often used to 

 denote a person sent by the Roman state to some other state or sove- 

 reign power on matters that concerned the public interest : in this 

 sense the word corresponds pretty nearly to our ambassador or envoy, 

 except that the motives for sending a legatus, or legate, seein to have 

 been occasional only, and the legates do not appear ever to have been 

 permanent resident functionaries in a foreign community. Under the 

 emperors those who were sent by them to administer the provinces 

 of which the government was reserved to the emperors, were called 

 legates. 



Under the republic the senators who had occasion to visit the 

 provinces on their own business used to obtain what was called a 

 ' legatio libera,' that is, the title and consideration of a legatus, or 

 public functionary, with the sole object of thereby furthering their 

 private interests. These legationes are said to have been called liberso, 

 or free, because those who held them had full liberty to enter or leave 

 the city, whereas all other public functionaries whose duties were 

 exercised beyond the limits of the city could not enter Rome till they 

 had laid aside their functions ; or because a senator could not go 

 beyond a certain distance from Rome unless ho obtained permission in 



