LEGACY, in common law, some particular bequest given or left by a testator in his will. The word is primarily applicable to gifts of personalty or gifts charged upon real estate. Legacies may be either specific, general or demonstrative. A specific legacy is "something which a testator, identifying it by a sufficient de scription and manifesting an intention that it should be enjoyed in the state and condition indicated by that description, separates in favour of a particular legatee from the general mass of his personal estate," e.g., a gift of "my portrait by X," naming the artist. A general legacy is a gift not so distinguished from the general mass of the personal estate, e.g., a gift of oo or of a gold ring. A demonstrative legacy partakes of the nature of both the preceding kinds of legacies, e.g., a gift of L i oo payable out of a named fund is a specific legacy so far as the fund named is available to pay the legacy ; after the fund is exhausted the balance of the legacy is a general legacy and recourse must be had to the general estate to satisfy such balance. Sometimes a testator bequeaths two or more legacies to the same person; in such a case it is a question whether the later legacies are in sub stitution for, or in addition to, the earlier ones. In the latter case they are known as cumulative.
If the estate of the testator is insufficient to satisfy all the legacies these must abate, i.e., be reduced rateably; as to this it should be noticed that specific and demonstrative legacies have a prior claim to be paid in full out of the specific fund before general legacies, and that general legacies abate rateably inter se in the absence of any provision to the contrary by the testator. As a general rule, legacies given to persons who predecease the testator do not take effect ; they are said to lapse ; but by the Wills Act 1837, gifts to a child or other issue of the testator will not lapse if any issue of the legatee survive the testator. In the
absence of any indication to the contrary a legacy becomes due on the day of the death of the testator, though for the convenience of the executor it is not payable till a year of ter that date. It frequently happens, however, that a legacy is given payable at a future date; in such a case, if the legatee dies after the testator but prior to the date when the legacy is payable it is necessary to discover whether the legacy was vested or contingent, as in the former case it becomes payable to the legatee's representative; in the latter, it lapses. In this, as in other cases, the test is the intention of the testator as expressed in the will; generally it may be said that a gift "payable" or "to be paid" at a certain fixed time confers a vested interest on the legatee, while a gift to A "at" a fixed time, e.g., 21 years of age, only confers on A an interest contingent on his attaining the age of 21.
United States.—The common law doctrines applicable to the nature of legacies and the order in which they are to be paid are generally in force in the United States. Courts are averse from construing legacies to be specific unless it is clear that the testa tor so intended. Statutes have commonly modified the rigid com mon law rule that a legacy lapsed by the death of the legatee during the lifetime of the testator and the share of the estate thus bequeathed went to the residuary legatee or those next of kin of the testator who were entitled to take under the intestate laws. They usually provide that the benefit of a lapsed legacy shall descend to the issue of the legatee, but commonly limit this rule to legatees who are descendants of the testator or the close collaterals. Such legislation is based upon the theory that it approximates more closely to the testator's intention than the common law doctrine. Legislation has also enabled legatees more readily to bring suit for their legacies.