ADMINISTRATION, LETTERS or. When a person dies intestate his real estate passes immediately to his heir, i.e. to the person designated by law as entitled to its enjoyment. His personal estate, however, has to be administered for the benefit of (1) his creditors (2) of the next of kin entitled to enjoy the surplus after payment of his debts. The administrator is a person who takes out letters of administration, i.e. procures himself to be nominated by the Probate Division of the High Court to the administration of the estate. Letters of administration are granted usually to some of the next of kin ; failing them, to a creditor, and, if there be no creditor, to any person whom the Court thinks suitable. Once appointed, the administrator very closely resembles an executor appointed by will. Like the executor the administrator, as such, has no beneficial interest in the estate, and no liability for anything beyond the assets which he receives. He is bound to realise the personal estate of the intestate to pay the funeral expenses and debts, and to distribute the balance, if any, among the persons entitled under the Statutes of Distribution (22 & 23 Car. II. c. 10, and acts explaining or amending). He may himself happen to be one of these persons.
It may happen that although the deceased has made a will he has named no EXECUTOR, or that the executor named refuses to act, or becomes incapable, or dies before the testator. In any of these cases an administrator must be appointed, and his administration is said to be "emu testamento annexo," since it is his duty to give effect to the provisions of the will. Should the sole executor or the administrator be an infant, his guardian will obtain letters of administration " durante minori aetate," that is, until the infant attains his majority.
Should the administrator die before he has fully administered the estate, a new administrator must be appointed. For the office of administrator does not pass like the office of executor to the personal representatives of the person who held it. The new administrator has administration "de bonis non adminis. tratis " (often termed "de bonis non ") i.e. of goods not administered by his predecessor.
What would be the best law of intestate succession is a question which has been much discussed, and involves complicated economical considerations. But, whatever the nature of that law, the office of administrator of the estate of the intestate appears equally necessary.
Pee Williams's Personal Property.] F. C. N.