legacy

14 definitions found

legacy - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Legacy \Leg"a*cy\ (l[e^]g"[.a]*s[y^]), n.; pl. Legacies
     (-s[i^]z). [L. (assumed) legatia, for legatum, from legare to
     appoint by last will, to bequeath as a legacy, to depute: cf.
     OF. legat legacy. See Legate.]
     1. A gift of property by will, esp. of money or personal
        property; a bequest. Also Fig.; as, a legacy of dishonor
        or disease.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A business with which one is intrusted by another; a
        commission; -- obsolete, except in the phrases last
        legacy, dying legacy, and the like.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              My legacy and message wherefore I am sent into the
              world.                                --Tyndale.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He came and told his legacy.          --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Legacy duty, a tax paid to government on legacies.
        --Wharton.
  
     Legacy hunter, one who flatters and courts any one for the
        sake of a legacy.
        [1913 Webster]

legacy - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  legacy
      n 1: (law) a gift of personal property by will [syn: bequest,
           legacy]

legacy - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  LEGACY. A bequest or gift of goods or chattels by testament. 2 Bl. Com. 512; 
  Bac. Abr. Legacies, A. See Merlin, Repertoire, mot Legs, s. 1; Swinb. 17; 
  Domat, liv. 4, t. 2, Sec. 1, n. 1. This word, though properly applicable to 
  bequests of personal estate only, has nevertheless been extended to property 
  not technically within its import, in order to effectuate the intention of 
  the testator, so as to include real property and annuities. 5 T. R. 716; 1 
  Burr. 268; 7 Ves. 522; Id. 391; 2 Cain. R. 345. Devise is the term more 
  properly applied to gifts of real estate. Godolph. 271. 
       2. As the testator is presumed at the time of making his will to be 
  inops concilii, his intention is to, be sought for, and any words which 
  manifest the intention to give or create a legacy, are sufficient. Godolph. 
  281, pt. 3, c. 22, s. 21; Com. Dig. Chancery, 3 Y 4; Bac. Abr. Legacies, B 
  1. 
       3. Legacies are of different kinds; they may be considered as general, 
  specific, and residuary. 1. A legacy is general, when it is so given as not 
  to amount to a bequest of a specific part of a testator's personal estate; 
  as of a sum of money generally, or out of the testator's personal estate, or 
  the like. 1 Rop. Leg. 256; Lown. Leg. 10. A general legacy is relative to 
  the testator's death; it is a bequest of such a sum or such a thing at that 
  time, or a direction to the executors, if such a thing be not in the 
  testator's possession at that time, to procure it for the legatee. Cas. 
  Temp. Talb. 227; Amb. 57; 4 Ves. jr. 675; 7 Ves. jr. 399. 
       4.-2. A specific legacy is a bequest of a particular thing, or money 
  specified and distinguished from all other things of the same kind; as of a 
  particular horse, a particular piece of plate, a particular term of years, 
  and the like, which would vest immediately, with the assent of the executor. 
  1 Rop. Leg. 149; Lownd. Leg. 10, 11; 1 Atk. 415. A specific legacy has 
  relation to the time of making the will; it is a bequest of some particular 
  thing in the testator's possession at that time, if such a thing should be 
  in the testator's possession at the time of his death. If it should not be 
  in the testator's possession, the legatee has no claim. There are legacies 
  of quantity in the nature of specific legacies, as of so much money with 
  reference to a particular fund for their payment. Touchs. 433; Amb. 310; 4 
  Ves. 565; 3 Ves. & Bea. 5. 
       5. This kind of legacy is so far general, and differs so much in effect 
  from a specific one, that if the funds be called in or fail, the legatees 
  will not be deprived of their legacies, but be permitted to receive them out 
  of the general assets; yet the legacies are go far specific, that they will 
  not be liable to abate with general legacies upon a deficiency of assets. 2 
  Ves. jr. 640; 5 Ves. jr. 206; 1 Mer. R. 178. 
       6.-3. A residuary legacy is a bequest of all the testator's personal 
  estate, not otherwise effectually disposed of by his will. Lown. Leg, 10; 
  Bac. Abr. Legacies, I. 
       7. As to the interest given, legacies may be considered, as absolute, 
  for life, or in remainder. 1. A legacy is absolute, when it is given without 
  condition, and is to vest immediately. See 2 Vern. 181; Ambl. 750; 19 Ves. 
  86; Lownd. 151; 2 Vern. 430; 1 Vern. 254; 5 Ves. 461; Com. Dig. Appendix, 
  Chancery IX. 
       8.-2. A legacy for life is sometimes given, with an executory 
  limitation after the death of the tenant for life to another person; in this 
  case, the tenant for life is entitled to the possession of the legacy, but 
  when it is of specific article's, the first legatee must sign and deliver to 
  the second, an inventory of the chattels expressing that they are in his 
  custody for life only, and that afterwards they are to be delivered and 
  remain to the use and benefit of the second legatee. 3 P. Wms. 336; 1 Atk. 
  471; 2 Atk. 82; 1 Bro. C. C. 279; 2 Vern. 249.  See 1 Rop. Leg. 404, 5, 580. 
  It seems that a bequest for life, if specific of things quo ipso usu 
  consumuntur, is a gift of the property, and that there cannot be a 
  limitation over, after a life interest in such articles. 3 Meriv. 194. 
       9.-8. In personal property there cannot be a remainder in the strict 
  sense of the word, and therefore every future bequest of personal property, 
  whether it be preceded or not by any particular bequest, or limited on a 
  certain or uncertain event, is an executory bequest, and falls under the 
  rules by which that mode of limitation is regulated. Fearne, Cont. R. 401, 
  n. An executory bequest cannot be prevented or destroyed by any alteration 
  whatsoever, in the estate, out of which, or after, which it is limited. Id. 
  421; 8 Co. 96, a; 10 Co. 476. And this privilege of executory bequests, 
  which exempts them from being barred or destroyed, is the foundation of an 
  invariable rule, that the event on which an interest of this sort is 
  permitted to take effect, is such as must happen within a life or lives in 
  being, and twenty-one years, and the fraction of another year, allowing for 
  the period of gestation afterwards. Fearne, Cont. R. 431. 
      10. As to the right acquired by the legatee, legacies may be considered 
  as vested and contingent. 1. A vested legacy is one;, by which a certain 
  interest, either present or future in possession, passes to the legatee. 2. 
  A contingent legacy is one which is so given to a person, that it is 
  uncertain whether any interest will ever vest in him. 
      11. A legacy may be lost by abatement, ademption, and lapse. I. 
  Abatement, see Abatement of Legacies. 2. Ademption, see, Ademption. 3. When 
  the legatee dies before the testator, or before the condition upon which the 
  legacy is given be performed, or before the time at which it is directed to 
  vest in interest have arrived, the legacy is lapsed or extinguished. See 
  Bac. Abr. Legacies, E; Com. Dig. Chancery, 3 Y. 13; 1 P. Wms. 83; Lownd. 
  Leg. ch. 12, p. 408 to 415; 1 Rop. Leg. ch. 8, p. 319 to 341. 
      12. In Pennsylvania, by legislative enactment, no legacy in favor of a 
  child or other lineal descendant of any testator, shall be deemed or held to 
  lapse or become void, by reason of the decease of such devisee or legatee, 
  in the lifetime of the testator, if such devisee or legatee shall leave 
  issue surviving the testator, but such devise or legacy shall be good and 
  available, in favor of such surviving issue, with like effect, as if such 
  devisee or legatee had survived the testator. The testator may however, 
  intentionally exclude such surviving issue, or any of them. Act of March 19, 
  1810, 5 Smith's L. of Pa. 112. 
      13. As to the payment of legacies, it is proper to consider out of what 
  fund they are to be paid; at what time; and to whom. 1. It is a general 
  rule, that the personal estate is the primary fund for the payment of 
  legacies. When the real estate is merely charged with those demands, the 
  personal assets are to be applied in the first place towards their 
  liquidation. 1 Serg. & Rawle, 453; 1 Rop. Leg. 463. 
      14.-2. When legacies are given generally to persons under no 
  disability to receive them, the payments ought to be made at the end of a 
  year next after the testator's decease. 5 Binn. 475. The executor is not 
  obliged to pay them sooner although the testator may have directed them to 
  be discharged within six months after his death, because the law allows the 
  executor one year from the demise of the testator, to ascertain and settle 
  his testator's affairs; and it presumes that at the expiration of that 
  period, and not before, all debts due by the estate have been satisfied, and 
  the executor to be then able, properly to apply the residue among the 
  legatees according to their several rights and interests. 
      15. When a legacy is given generally, and is subject to a limitation 
  over upon a subsequent event, the divesting contingency will not prevent the 
  legatee from receiving his legacy at the end of the year after the 
  testator's death, and he is under no obligation to give security for 
  repayment of the money, in case the event shall happen. The principle seems 
  to be, that as the testator has entrusted him without requiring security, no 
  person has authority to require it. 1 Ves. Jr. 97; 18 Ves. 131; Lownd. on 
  Legacies, 403. 
      16. As to the persons to whom payment to be made, see, where the legacy 
  is given to an infant 1 Rop. Leg. 589 ;1 P. Wms. 285; 1 Eq. Cas. Abr. 300; 3 
  Bro. C. C. 97, edit. by Belt; 2 Atk. 80; 2 Johns. C. R. 614; where the 
  legacy is given to a married woman; 1 Rop. Leg. 595; Lownd. Leg 399; where 
  the legacy is given to a lunatic, 1 Rop. Leg. 599; where it is given to a 
  bankrupt; Id. 600; 2 Burr. 717.; where it is given to a person abroad, who 
  has not been heard of for a long time. Id. 601 Finch, R. 419; 3 Bro. C. C. 
  510; 5 Ves. 458; Lownd. Leg. 398. 
       See, generally, as to legacies; Roper on Legacies; Lowndes on Legacies; 
  Bac. Abr. Legacy; Com. Dig. Administration, C 3, 5; Id. Chancery, 3 A; 3 G; 
  8 Y 1; Id. Prohibition, G 17; Vin. Abr. Devise; Id. Executor; Swinb. 17 to 
  44; 2 Salk. 414 to 416. 
      17. By the Civil Code of Louisiana, legacies are divided into universal 
  legacies, legacies under an universal title, and particular legacies. 1. An 
  universal legacy is a testamentary disposition, by which the testator gives 
  to one or several persons the whole of the property which he leaves; at his 
  decease. Civ. Code of Lo. art. 1599. 
      18.-2. The legacy under an universal title, is that by which a 
  testator bequeaths a certain proportion of the effects of which the law 
  permits him to dispose, as a half, a third, or all his immovables, or all 
  his movables, or a fixed proportion of all his immovables, or of all his 
  movables. Id. 1604. 
      19.-3. Every legacy not included in the definition given of universal 
  legacies, and legacies under a universal title, is a legacy under a 
  particular title. Id. 1618. Copied from Code Civ. art. 1003 and 1010. See 
  Toullier, Droit Civil Francais, tome 5, p. 482, et seq. 
  
  

  LEGACY, ADDITIONAL. An additional legacy is one which is given by a codicil, 
  besides one before given by the will; or it is an increase by a codicil of a 
  legacy before given by the will. An additional legacy is generally subject 
  to the same qualities and conditions as the original legacy. 6. Mod. 31; 2 
  Ves. jr. 449; 3 Mer. 154; Ward on Leg. 142. 
  
  

  LEGACY, ALTERNATIVE. One where the testator gives one of two things to the 
  legatee without designating which of them; as, one of my two horses. Vide 
  Election. 
  
  

  LEGACY, ACCUMULATIVE. An accumulative legacy is a second bequest given by 
  the same testator to the same legatee, whether it be of the same kind of 
  thing, as money, or whether it be of different things, as, one hundred 
  dollars, in one legacy, and a thousand dollars in another, or whether the 
  sums are equal or whether the legacies are of a different nature. 2 Rop. 
  Leg. 19. 
  
  

  LEGACY, CONDITIONAL. A bequest which is to take effect upon the happening 
  or, not happening of a certain event. Lownd. Leg. 166; Rop. Leg. Index, tit. 
  Condition. 
  
  

  LEGACY, RESIDUARY. That which is of the remainder of an estate after the 
  payment of all the debts and other legacies. Madd. Ch. P. 284. 
  
  

  LEGACY, DEMONSTRATIVE. A demonstrative legacy is a bequest of a certain sum 
  of money; intended for the legatee at all events, with a fund particularly 
  referred to for its payment; so that if the estate be not the testator's 
  property at his death, the legacy will not fail: but be payable out of 
  general assets. 1 Rop. Leg. 153; Lownd. Leg 85; Swinb. 485; Ward on Leg. 
  370. 
  
  

  LEGACY, INDEFINITE. A bequest of things which are not enumerated or 
  ascertained as to numbers or quantities; as, a bequest by a testator of all 
  his goods, all his stocks in the funds. Lownd. on Leg. 84; Swinb. 485; Amb. 
  641; 1 P. Wms. 697. 
  
  

  LEGACY, LAPSED. A legacy is said to be lapsed or extinguished, when the 
  legatee dies before the testator, or before the condition upon which the 
  legacy is given has been performed, or before the time at which it is 
  directed to vest in interest has arrived. Bac. Ab. Legacy, E; Com. Dig. 
  Chancery, 3 Y 13; 1 P. Wms. 83. Lownd. Leg. 408 to 415; 1 Rop. Leg. 319 to 
  341. See, as to the law of Pennsylvania in favor of lineal descendants, 5 
  Smith's Laws of Pa. 112. Vide, generally, 8 Com. Dig. 502-3; 5 Toull. n. 
  671. 
  
  

  LEGACY, M0DAL. A modal legacy is a bequest accompanied with directions as to 
  the mode in which it should be applied for the legatee's benefit; for 
  example, a legacy to Titius to put him an apprentice. 2 Vern. 431; Lownd. 
  Leg. 151. 
  
  

  LEGACY, PECUNIARY, A pecuniary legacy is one of money; pecuniary legacies 
  are most usually general legacies, but there may be a specific pecuniary 
  legacy; for example, of the money in a certain bag. 1 Rop. Leg. 150, n. 
  
  

legacy - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  60 Moby Thesaurus words for "legacy":
     attested copy, bequeathal, bequest, birthright, borough-English,
     by-product, codicil, coheirship, consequence, consequent,
     coparcenary, corollary, derivation, derivative, development,
     devise, distillate, effect, entail, event, eventuality,
     eventuation, fruit, gavelkind, harvest, heirloom, heirship,
     hereditament, heritable, heritage, heritance,
     incorporeal hereditament, inheritance, issue, law of succession,
     line of succession, logical outcome, mode of succession, offshoot,
     offspring, outcome, outgrowth, patrimony, postremogeniture,
     precipitate, primogeniture, probate, product, result, resultant,
     reversion, sequel, sequela, sequence, sequent, succession,
     testament, ultimogeniture, upshot, will