DISTRIBUTION. In its most general sense in the law, the division of a surplus fund among those legally entitled to share therein. It applies equally to the division of a trust fund among the restuiv wee trust, of the surplus a- 9. of a bankrupt or insolvent among the creditors. of property after payment of debts among the co-partners. and of the in the hands of an administrator of an intestate among those entitled, as next of kin or otherwise, to share It among Distribution usually refers to the last of these, and the statute- which have been enacted in !;real Britain and in the United States to regu late the distribution of an intestate's personal estate are known as statutes of distribution. The matter is one wholly of statute regulation at the present time.
Formerly the personal estate of one dying in testate passed at once into the bands of the bishop of the diocese. and the disposition made of it was determined by the ecelesinstical law, administered by the so-called 'ordinary court' of the diocese. There seems originally to have been no provision for the pa' mint of the debts of the decedent. and the bulk of the estate. after deduct ing some small provision fur the widow 1111i1 chil dren. was devoted to the purposes of the Church tin pits it was. however, as early as 12S5, provided by statute (St. Westminster 11. c that the ordinary should pay the intestate's debts just as an executor h01.11111 to (10, and in 1357 it was further enacted (31 Edw. Ill. st. 1, c. 11) that the ordinary should commit the ad ministration of the intestate's goods to his next and most lawful friend:. The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts over the administration of decedent's estates, whether testate or intestate, continued in England till IS'57, when it was transferred by act of Parliament t o the newly cre ated Court of Probate. It is now vested in the Probate. Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice, instituted by the Judica ture Act of Is73. in tlw United Stales separate courts of this character. known variously as sur rogates' eourts. probate courts. ordinary courts, and orphans' courts. have existed from the earli est period for the exercise of this jurisdietion.
The admini-tration of decedents' estates in clude- (it the payment of funeral expenses, of the costs of administration, and of the decedent's debt:: (21 in the case of an executor, the pay ment of the legacies giV•n by the will: and 131 in the ease of either ati executor or adminis trator, the distribution of the surplus, if 'any, those entitled thereto under the statutes of distribution.
The feudal law of land, which confined the descent of real estate to a certain person or class of persons. taking as heir of the intestate, hail no application to the transmission of the personal estate. That was from the beginning distributed on a more rational and humane plan. due, in large part. at least, to the mild influence of the canon. or ecclesiastical. law. It has been noticed that in the earliest period the right of the widow and children to share reasonably ( pa rtex rot io nabiles1 in the estate watt reeognized. The same principles prevail toolay. There is a much less rigid classitient ion of those who stand in the order of distribution than is tile ease in the of tho descent of 1:111(1. and there is noth ing resembling the feudal preference of the male to the female, of the elder to the younger, of the whole to the half blood. In England the matter is regulated by the statutes 22 and 23 Car. II_ c. In and 1 Jae. iI,. e. 17. known as the Statutes of Distribution, and the order of distribution provided for by them follows closely that of the early law to which reference has been made. Skin lar statutes have been enacted in all of the United States, but these. though governed by the same principles and alike in their general out lines, vary considerably in detail. In general it may he said that if a man die. leaving a wife and children. one-third of the personal estate goes to the wife and the remaining two-thirds to the children. If there be a wife and no children, the wife takes one-half, the other half going to the next of kin of the deceased. If there be children and no wife, the children take the whole estate to the exclusion of other kindred. In England and in many of our States the position of a sur viving husband is better than that of a surviving widow. The old common-law rule. that the hus band is solely entitled to the personal estate upon the death of the wife. has been generally abro gated in the United States where there are also surviving children, and in many of the States his position has been completely assimilated to that of the wife. For a more detailed and exact state ment of the order of distribution of intestate's estates, the reader is referred to the statutes of the several States. See the articles on Arixtms TRATION: DESCENT: EXECUTOR; and the author ities there referred to: and also Stimson's Ameri can Statute Lair. vol. i. (Boston, 1,SS6).