Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/397

* EXECUTIONER. 849 EXECUTOR. United Stales Army the provosi marshal performs the iluties of military executioner. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. The branch of government to which is confided the duty of executing the laws; in distinction from the legislative department, which enacts, and the judicial department, which interprets them. Ill the United States Government, the chief execu- tive officer is the Presidenl ; in the several Stales, the Governor. The secretaries of Slate. Treas- ury, Interior, Agriculture, War, and the Navy, with the Postmaster-General and the Attorney- General, are officers of the executive department under direction of the President. The Constitu- tion does not recognize their existence, but cus- tom has made them his counselors and advisers. In the different departments are numerous sub- ordinate executive officers, known as assistant secretaries, clerks, examiners, solicitors, auditors, controllers, commissioners, deputy commissioners, directors, chiefs, superintendents, etc. There are also collectors of internal revenue (in districts), and collectors and surveyors of customs (in dis- tricts). EXECUTIVE OFFICER, United States Navy. An officer of a naval vessel detailed by the Secretary of the Navy from those line officers who are not by law restricted to the performance of engineering duties. He is usually the line officer next in rank to the captain, and acts as his aid in carrying on the business of the ship, being responsible for the proper organization of the ship's company, although he possesses no independent authority. He acts as recruiting officer and lias charge of the ship's records, being assisted by one or more toriters as clerks. He is the equipment officer of the ship, in which duty he is assisted by the boatswain and has a yeoman,, or clerk, for keeping the accounts. He is also construction officer, and has charge of the hull, boats, and other construction matters, and in this department he is assisted by the carpenter. He is 'on duty' at all times, and has general supervision over all matters connected with the organization, police, inspection, discipline, exer- cise, and official condition of the crew, and the cleanliness, good order, efficiency, and neat and trim appearance of the ship. When all hands are called for the purpose of carrying on general evolutions, he has charge of the deck. In battle he has general supervision of the battery, and of all matters pertaining to the safety and efficiency of the ship. EXECUTOR (Lat., performer, accomplished. The personal representative of a decedent, ap- pointed by last will and testament. His func- tions are to-day substantially those of an admin- istrator, and are limited to the administration of the personal estate of the testator. By the ec- clesiastical law of England, however, by which his powers and duties were formerly regulated, his position was one of much greater considera- tion. There he was regarded much in the light of the heir (hxeres) of the Roman law (from which the ecclesiastical law was mainly derived), and as the owner of the personal property left by the decedent. His duty was originally con- fined to the discharge of the funeral expenses and the debts of his testator, and, later, of the per- sonal legacies bequeathed by the will, the residue in his hands belonging to him absolutely. The right, universally recognized to-day, of the next of kin of the decedent to share the residuum of the personal estate among them, after payment of debt?, and legacies, i-- wholly due to a of statutes, which have gradually reduced the executor to the position of an administrator. As the expression 'personal representative' in dicates, the executor is entitled onh to the pei sonal rights of his testator, and not in those in our law denominated real; thai is to say, only the personal property and personal rights of acl ion — as on contract, for del its due. etc.— accrue to him, while real property and rights of entry and actions for the recovery of freehold estates in land descend to the heir. Where, as is fre- quently the case, the executor is authorized by the will to sell real estate for the payment of debts, lie does not thereby acquire any title there- in, but only a power of appointment i i all (See Power.) The proceeds oi auch sale become equitable assets (q.v.) in his hands. In this respect his position has always been different from that of the Roman lueres, who succeeded to the entire estate of his testator. Like the hares, however, and unlike- the English and American administrator, the title of the ex- ecutor to the personal estate of the decedent vests at once upon the latter's death, and is not dependent upon the probate of the will under which he claims, nor the issue of letters testa mentary. It is only for the purpose of enabling him to maintain suits at law and as conclusive evidence of his authority, that probate proceed- ings are necessary. It should be added that wdiile the restriction of the executor's estate and authority to the personal property of his testator is still generally observed, a few American States have by statute invested him with similar juris- diction over the real estate, and that a similar change has recently been effected in the English law by the Land Transfer Act, 1897 (60 and 61 Vict., c. 65). The duties of an executor are now usually pre- scribed by statute, and may be briefly sum- marized as follows : First. To bury the decedent in a manner suitable to the estate. Second. To prove the will and take out letters testamentary. Third. To move and file with the probate court an inven- tory of the personal estate. Fourth. To collect the goods and chattels of the testator, and his claims against others, with reasonable diligence. Fifth. To advertise for claims against the estate. Sixth. To pay the debts in the order of priority estab lished by law. Seventh. To distribute the chat- tels and pay the legacies in accordance with the terms of the will. Eighth. To convert the sur- plus of personal estate, if any. into cash, and distribute it among the next of kin, according to the statutes of distribution. Ninth. To keep the money and other property of the estate safely and prudently. Tenth. To render an account whenever called upon by proper authority so to do, and to apply for a discharge upon a final ac- counting, within the time prescribed by statute for the completion of the administration. Generally speaking, any one who is not men- tally incompetent may be an executor: even in- fants, and married women under the common- law disability of coverture (q.v.). The court may compel an insolvent or non-resident executor to give security : but ordinarily an executor need not give security, unless (as is the case in some American States) he is required by statute so