A court-leet may be adjourned if the business of the particular court require it.
It is not necessary that notice should be given of an order made by the leet for abating a nuisance; the party being within the jurisdiction, must take notice of it at his peril. For the same reason he is also bound to take notice of a by law.
The ordinary profits of a court-leet are the fines, amercements, and essoign pence, and belong, in the case of a public leet or tourn, to the king; in the case of a pri vate leet, to the grantee or lord of the leet. In a private leet also, the lord, as above mentioned, is entitled to a further payment, in the nature of a poll-tax, capitagium, or chevage, by the name of certum lette, sometimes culled cert-silver, certainty-money, cert-money, and head silver. When this payment is to be made on the day of the beet, the defaulters may be presented and amerced. For such smercement the lord may distrain ; but he cannot distrain for the cert-money it self, without a prescription to warrant such distress. In the absence of both amercement and prescription, the lord's remedy is by action of debt.
Though the court-leet may now be consi dered as an antiquated institution in many respects, it is one of our old institutions that is characterized by many valuable features. But the court-leet is not ineffi cient in all places. It is stated in a valu able pamphlet by J. Ross Coulthart, Esq. ' On the sanatory condition of the town of Ashton-under-Lyne (1844), " That as the power and authority of the surveyor or inspector of nuisances is limited to common nuisances, it is necessary in all cases of private nuisance to call in the aid of Lord Stamford's Court-lest Jury. This court, which has fallen into disuse in many towns, holds its sittings here (in Ashton-under-Lyne) regularly every six months; and the numerous amerciaments which are from time to time made a. ..n the owners of property in respect of . germ's tenements, defective sewerage, and filthy nuisances, contribute in no small degree to correct abuses and to punish a class of careless and avaricious landlords, that neither the local acts nor common law could effectually reach." The author of this pamphlet has given at length the form of proceedings in the court-leet at Ashton, and the examples of the kinds of presentments and amerciaments. The author says at the end of the note, " In conclusion I would remark, that the pre scriptive manorial powers exercised within the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne are not found to be in any respect oppressive ; but on the other hand are found to be invaluable adjuncts to the effective work ing of our various local acts of parlia ment. Indeed I know of my own know ledge that the commissioners appointed under our police, gas, market, and water acts, frequently derive much valuable as sistance from the presentments of the Court-lest Jury ; and that if it were not for such excellent auxiliaries, several of the provisions of these acts would be al together inoperative. In all these local
acts of parliament a provision is intro duced, reserving unimpaired the privi leges of the manor to Lord Stamford." (Legitam), a bequest or gift of goods and chattels by will or testa ment. The person to whom it is given is termed the legatee (legattirius).
The bequest in no case confers more than an inchoate property on the legatee. which does not become complete till the assent of the executor or administrator with the will annexed, as the case may be, has been given. [ExEcuToa.] But, before such assent, the bequest is trans missible to the personal representatives of the legatee, and will pass by his will. The assent of the executor or adminis trator, however, cannot be refused except so far as this, that he is not bound to ad mit that there is any property due to the legatee till the debts of the deceased are paid.
Legacies are of two kinds, general and specific. A legacy is general when it is so given as not to amount to a bequest of a particular thing, or a particular fund of the testator ; a specific legacy is a bequest of a specified thing, or a specific part of the testator's estate. The whole of the estate of a person deceased being liable for the payment of his debts, legacies of both kinds are of course subject to debts : but in case of a deficiency of the estate for the payment of the legacies, the gene ral legatees can only be paid in equal proportion ; and they must, as it is tech nically termed, abate. A specific legatee is not compelled to abate, or allow any thing by way of abatement, but his legacy may be taken for the payment of debts if the general legacies have all been applied to pay them and there is still a deficiency. Specific legatees may however be com pelled to abate as against one another. If the part of the testator's estate which is specifically given has been disposed of by the testator in his life-time, or at the time of his death has ceased to exist in such form as described in his will, the general rule is, that the specific legatee loses his legacy, and is not entitled to any satisfaction out of the general estate ; :n such case the legacy is said to be adeemed, a term which has been derived from the Roman law, though the word " adimere is not there used exactly in this sense (Dig. 34, tit. 4). There is also a third description of legacy, partaking somewhat of the nature of both kinds already men tioned, as a gift of so much money, with reference to a particular fund for pay ment. This is called a demonstrative legacy, but so far differs from one pro perly specific, that if the fund pointed out fails on any account, the legatee will be paid out of the general assets ; yet it is so far specific that it is not liable to abate in case of a deficiency of the general assets.