DEVASTAVIT. A mismanagement and waste by an executor, administrator, or other trustee, of the and effects trusted to him as such, by which a loss occurs.
2. Devastavit by direct abuse takes place when the executor, administrator, or trustee sells, embezzles, or converts to his own use the goods intrusted to him, Comyns, Dig. Administration (11); releases a claim due to the estate, 3 Bacon, Abr. 700; Hob. 266; Croke Eliz. 43 ; 7 Johns. N. Y.404 ; 9 Mass. 352; or surrenders a lease below its value. 2 Johns. Cas. N. Y. 376; 3 P. Will. 330. These ihstances sufficiently show that any wilful waste of the property will be consi dered a direct devastavit.
3. Devastavit by maladministration most frequently occurs by the payment of claims which were not due nor owing, or by paying others out of the order in which they ought to be paid, or by the payment of legacies before all the debts are satisfied. 4 Serg. & R. Penn. 394 ; 5 Rawle, Penn. 266.
4. Devcistavit by neglect. Negligence on the part of an executor, administrator, or trustee may equally tend to the waste of the estate as the direct destruction or mal-admi nistration of the assets, and render him guilty of a devastavit. The neglect to sell the goods
at a fair price within a reasonable time, or, if they are perishable goods, before they are wasted, will be a devastavit; and a neglect to Collect a doubtful debt which by proper exer tion might have been collected will be so con sidered. Bacon, Abr. Executors, L.
5. The law requires from trustees good faith and due diligence, the want of which is punished by making them responsible for the losses which may be sustained by the property intrusted to them : *hen. therefore, a party has been guilty of a devastavit, he is required to make up the loss out of his own estate. See Comyns, Dig. Administration, I ; 11 Viner, Abr. 306; 1 Belt, Suppl. to Yes. 209; 1 Vern. Ch. 328 ; 7 East, 257; 1 Binn. Penn. 194 ; 1 Serg. & R. Penn. 241 ; 1 Johns. N. Y. 396 ; 1 Caines, Cas. N. Y. 96; Bacon, Abr. Exe cutors, L; 11 Toullier, 58, 59, n. 48.