Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Slice 1 Volume 10 (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...or outstanding, and he is to deliver it to the court on oath. He is to collect all the goods so inventoried and to commence actions to get in all those outstanding, and he is responsible to creditors for the whole of such estate, whether in possession or in action. This duty is thrown upon the representative by an act of 1529, but it is not the modern practice to exhibit such inventory unless he be cited for it in the spiritual court at the instance of a party interested. It is, however, necessary to file an affidavit setting out the value of the estate of the deceased upon applying for a grant of probate or letters of administration. 4. The representative must pay the debts of the deceased according to their priority. Next to the legitimate funeral expenses come the costs of proving and administering the estate; in the event, however, of the funeral and testamentary expenses being charged by the will upon any particular fund, they will be primarily payable out of that fund. The representative must be careful to pay the debts according to the rules of priority, otherwise he will become personally liable to the creditors of one degree if he has exhausted the estate in paying creditors of a lesser degree. First of all, a solicitor has a lien for his costs upon any fund or duty which he has recovered for the deceased; next in order come debts due to the crown by record or speciality; then debts given a priority by statute, as, for example, by the Poor Relief Act 1743, money due by an overseer of the poor to his parish. Next, debts of record, i.e. 64 judgment recovered against the deceased in any court of record; all such debts are equal among themselves, but a judgment creditor who has sued out execution is preferred to one who has not; another class of debts of record are statutes merchant and staple, or recognizances in the nature of statute staple, i.e. bonds of record acknowledged before the lord mayor of London or the mayor of the staple. Last in...