LEGACY is a bequest or gift contained in the will of a deceased person of a chattel or sum of money or other thing. In England, it is provided by statute that if a legacy is given to the witness of a will, or to his or her wife or husband, the legacy is void; therefore, a legatee should never act as a witness. So bequests to superstitious uses are void, as, for example, to maintain a priest, or an anniversary or obit, or a lamp in a church, or to say masses for the testator's soul, or to circulate pamphlets inculcating the pope's supremacy. Legacies of money for charitable purposes, as for the use of schools, churches, etc., are valid, but if the money is directed to be laid out in the purchase of land for such purposes, the legacy is void by what is called the mortmain act (q.v.), 9 Geo. II. c. 36. The policy of this statute has often of late been questioned, and it is enough to say that there is a -mode, often practiced, of evading it.
Legacies are divided into specific and general. A specific legacy means a legacy of a specific thing, as a particular horse, picture, silver-plate, etc., or a sum of stock in the funds. A general legacy means a sum of money, without saying out of what fund it is to come, and it is payable out of the assets generally. The important difference between the two kinds of legacy is this, that if the subject-matter of the specific legacy fail, as if the horse die or be previously sold, etc., the legacy is gone, and no compensation is given for it; while, on the other hand, if there is not enough to pay all the general legacies, then they must abate—that is, share the loss—whereas the specific legacy, If it exist, must still be paid hi full. There are various rules of great nicety and intricacy connected with the proper construction of legacies in a will, which are too technical to be noticed. It is a general rule, applicable to all legacies, that they arc only payable if there is money enough for the purpose, after paying all the testator's debts, for the maxim applies, that a man must be just before he is generous. The rule is, that a
legacy is not payable by the executor till a year has elapsed after the testator's death, for it is presumed he requires this time to inquire into the state of the property; and this is true even though the testator haS ordered the legacy to be paid within six months after the death. If a legacy is left to an infant under twenty-one, it cannot be paid to the father, or any other relation, without the sanction of the court of chancery. If a legacy is left to a married woman, the husband was entitled to claim it, unless it was left to her separate use, or unless she was un provided for by the husband; but now, in all cases, the wife gets for her separate use all property coming to her. Interest is due on legacies from the time when the principal sum is psyable—i.e., one year after the death—unless otherwise specified. If the legatee die before the testator, the legacy lapses—that is, becomes void; but there are some exceptions, as where the legatee is a child or grand child of the testator.—In Scotland, the rules as to legacies are mainly the same, but not entirely. The details are too technical to require notice here. See 'Priterson's Compen diurn.of English and Scotch Law, p. 233. In Scotland, a legacy can be enforced in six months after the testator's death. and bears interest from such death. If a legacy is left to a.married woman, the husband is now in general bound, as in England, to settle it on the wife. by the statute 24 and 25 Viet. c. 86.
In the United Kingdom, a legacy or succession duty is levied on the amount of all legacies (except to husband or wife). Children and issue, also parents and ancestors, pay one per cent duty; brothers arid sisters, and their issue, pay three pe- cent;- uncles and stints, and their issue, pay five per cent; granduncles, etc., and their issue, pay six per cent. Strangers in blood, and distant relatives, also illegitimate children, pay ten per cent.