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 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 the order of debts come specialty and simple contract debts, which by Hinde Palmer’s Act (the Executors Act 1869) are of equal degree, though as between specialty debts bonds given for value rank before voluntary bonds unless assigned for value, and as between simple contract debts those due to the crown have priority. Though the creditors can if necessary take all the estate of the deceased to satisfy their claims, yet as between the various classes of assets the representative must pay the debts out of assets in the following order: (i.) General personal estate not specifically bequeathed nor exempted from payment of debts; (ii.) real estate appropriated to debts; (iii.) real estate descended; (iv.) real estate devised charged with payment of debts; (v.) general pecuniary legacies pro rata; (vi.) specific legacies and devises; (vii.) real estate over which a general power of appointment has been exercised by will; (viii.) the widow’s paraphernalia.

5. The debts of the deceased being satisfied, the representative must next proceed to satisfy the legacies and devises left by the testator. In order to enable him to do this with safety to himself, it is provided that he cannot be compelled to divide the estate among the legatees or next of kin until twelve months from the death of the deceased (this is commonly known as “the executor’s year”), though if there is no doubt as to the solvency of the estate he may do so at once. As a further protection the representative may give notice by advertisement for creditors to send in their claims against the estate, and on expiration of the notices he may proceed to divide the estate, though even then the creditor may follow the assets to the person who has received them and recover for his debt. As between legatees the following priorities must be observed: (1) Specific legatees and devisees, (2) demonstrative legatees, and (3) general legatees; and as to this last class the testator can give priority to one over another. If there are not sufficient assets to pay the general legatees they must abate rateably. Legacies were not payable out of the real estate prior to the Land Transfer Act 1897, unless the testator charged the realty with them. Even then unless the testator exonerates his personalty from payment of the legacies the personalty will be the first fund chargeable. It has been suggested that the effect of the act is to make the realty chargeable pro rata with the personalty, but this is doubtful.

6. The residue, after all legacies and devises are satisfied, must, if there be a will, be paid to the residuary legatee therein named, and if there be no will the real estate will go to the heir (see ) and the personalty to the next of kin (see ). It was held at one time that in default of a residuary legatee the residue fell to the executor himself, but now nothing less than the expressed intention of the testator can give it to him.

The liabilities of the representative may be shortly stated. He is liable in his representative capacity in all cases where the deceased would be liable were he alive. To this general rule there are some exceptions. The representative cannot be sued for breach of a contract for personal services which can be performed only in the lifetime of the person contracting, nor again can he be sued in a case where unliquidated damages only could have been recovered against the deceased. He is liable in his personal capacity in the following cases: if he contracts to pay a debt due by the deceased, or if having admitted that he had assets in his hands sufficient to pay a debt or legacy he has misapplied such assets so that he cannot satisfy them; or lastly, if by mismanaging the estate and effects of the deceased he has made himself liable for a devastavit. Shortly stated, a representative is bound to exercise the ordinary care of a business man in administering the estate of the deceased, and he will be liable for the loss to the estate caused by his own negligence, or by the negligence of a co-representative which his act or neglect has rendered possible. Though the general rule of delegatus non potest delegari holds good of a representative, yet in certain cases he may “rely upon skilled persons in matters in which he cannot be expected to be experienced,” e.g. he must employ solicitors to conduct a lawsuit.

The privileges of the representative are these: he may prefer one creditor to another of equal degree; he may retain a debt owing to him from the deceased as against other creditors of equal degree (see ); he may reimburse himself out of the estate all expenses incurred in the execution of his trust.

An executor de son tort is one who, without any title to do so, wrongfully intermeddles with the assets of the deceased, dealing with them in such a way as to hold himself out as executor. In such a case he is subject to all the liabilities of an executor, and can claim none of the privileges. He may be treated by the creditor as the executor, and, if he is really assuming to act as executor, creditors and legatees will get a good title from him, but he is liable to be sued by the rightful representative for damages for interfering with the property of the deceased.

Scotland.—Executor in Scots law is a more extensive term than in English. He is either nominative or dative, the latter appointed by the court and corresponding in most respects to the English administrator. Caution is required from the latter, not from the former. By the common law doctrine of passive representation the heir or executor was liable to be sued for implement of the deceased’s obligations. The Roman principle of beneficium inventarii was first introduced by an act of 1695. As the law at present stands, the heir or executor is liable only to the value of the succession, except where there has been vitious intromission in movables, and in gestio pro haerede (behaviour as heir) and other cases in heritables. The present inventory duty on succession to movables and heritables depends on the Finance Acts 1894–1909 (see ). In England the executor is bound to pay the debts of the deceased in a certain order, but in Scotland they all rank pari passu except privileged debts (see ).

—R. L. Vaughan Williams, The Law of Executors and Administrators; W. G. Walker, Compendium on the Law of Executors and Administrators; James Schouler, Law of Executors and Administrators (3rd ed., Boston, 1901).

EXEDRA, or }} (from Gr., out, and  , a seat), an architectural term originally applied to a seat or recess out of doors, intended for conversation. Such recesses were generally semicircular, as in the important example built by Herodes Atticus at Olympia. In the great Roman thermae (baths) they were of large size, and like apses were covered with a hemispherical vault. An example of these exists at Pompeii in the Street of the Tombs. From Vitruvius we learn that they were often covered over, and they are described by him (v. 11) as places leading out of porticoes, where philosophers and rhetoricians could debate or harangue.

 EXELMANS, RENÉ JOSEPH ISIDORE, (1775–1852), marshal of France, was born at Bar-le-Duc on the 13th of November 1775. He volunteered into the 3rd battalion of the Meuse in 1791, became a lieutenant in 1797, and in 1798 was aide-de-camp to General Éblé, and in the following year to General Broussier. In his first campaign in Italy he greatly distinguished himself; and in April 1799 he was rewarded for his services by the grade of captain of dragoons. In the same year he took part with honour in the conquest of Naples and was again promoted, and in 1801 he became aide-de-camp to General Murat. He accompanied Murat in the Austrian, Prussian and Polish campaigns of 1805, 1806 and 1807. At the passage of the Danube, and in the action of Wertingen, he specially distinguished himself; he was made colonel for the valour which he displayed at Austerlitz, and general of brigade for his conduct at Eylau in 1807. In 1808 he accompanied Murat to Spain, but was there made prisoner and conveyed to England. On regaining his liberty in 1811 he went to Naples, where King Joachim Murat appointed him grand-master of horse. Exelmans, however, rejoined the French army on the eve of the Russian campaign, and on the field of Borodino won the rank of general of division. In the retreat from Moscow his steadfast courage was conspicuously manifested on several occasions. In 1813 he was made, for services in the campaign of Saxony and Silesia, grand-officer of the Legion of Honour, and in 1814 he reaped additional glory by his intrepidity and skill in the campaign of France. When the Bourbons were restored, Exelmans retained his position in the army. In January 1815 he was tried on an accusation of having treasonable relations with Murat, but was acquitted. Napoleon on his return from Elba made Exelmans a peer of France and placed him in command of the II. cavalry corps, which he commanded in the Waterloo campaign, the battle of Ligny and Grouchy’s march on Wavre. In the closing operations round Paris Exelmans won great distinction. After the second Restoration he denounced, in the House of Peers, the execution of Marshal Ney as an “abominable assassination”; thereafter he lived in exile in Belgium and Nassau for some years, till 1819, when he was recalled to France. In 1828 he was appointed inspector-general of cavalry; and after the July revolution of 1830 he received from Louis Philippe the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and was reinstated as a peer of France. At the revolution of 1848 Exelmans was one of the adherents of Louis Napoleon; and in 1851 he was, in recognition of his long and brilliant military career, raised to the dignity of a marshal of France. His death, which took place on the 10th of July 1852, was the result of a fall from his horse.