Edmunds' Adm'r v. Scott

Citations

• 78 Va. 720
• 1884 Va. LEXIS 45

Syllabus

<p>1. Executors and Administrators—Legacies—Debts—Devastavit.— The laws of this State require that all of decedent’s debts and liabilities be paid out of his assets before payment of any legacies or bequests, and his personal representatives who, without taking proper refunding bonds, pay the latter before the former shall have been paid are guilty of devastavit, and they and their sureties are liable to the unpaid creditors.</p> <p>2. Idem—Sureties—Loss of slave property.—It is settled doctrine that the fact that the property of the principal debtors consisted of slaves, the ownership wherein was destroyed by the late war, does not exonerate their sureties from liability.</p> <p>3. Idem—Idem—Application of'estate.—Where testator charges his debts on his personalty only, the order of applying his estate to the payment of his debts is : (1) Personalty at large; (2) residuary legacies ; (3) general pecuniary legacies ; (4) specific legacies ; and lastly, real eétate divised by will. And where the residuary legacy is bequeathed to the executor, and he takes and consumes it, leaving testator’s debts unpaid, his sureties are liable for the amount thereof before real estate devised by will can be subjected. Elliott v. Carter and als., 9 Gratt. 549.</p> <p>4. Appellate Court—Practice.—Appellant must not only have been a party to, but must have been aggrieved by the decree complained of, else the appeal must be dismissed. Little v. Bowen and als., 76 Va. 724—e. g., where administrator appeals from decree for the renting of his decedent’s land.</p>