LEGACY. A gift of personal property by last will and testament.
A gift or disposition in one's favor by a last will. Schoul. Ex. & Ad. § 459. The term is more commonly applied to a bequest of money or chattels, although sometimes used with reference to a charge upon real estate ; 2 Wms. Ex. 1051; see Quincy v. Rog ers, 9 Cush. (Mass.) 297; Williams v. Mc Comb, 38 N. C. 450; 7 Ves. 391, 522. A di rection to the executor to support and main tain a person during his life gives him a legacy ; Farwell v. Jacobs, 4 Mass. 634; but a recommendation to give from time to time some little assistance to A" does not ; Suc cession of Trouard, 5 La. Ann. 390. It is said that the word legacy in a will may in clude real as well as personal property ; Homes v. Mitchell, 6 N. C. 228, 5 Am. Dec. 527.
An absolute legacy is one given without condition, to vest immediately; 1 Vern. 254; 19 Ves. 86; Com. Dig. Chancery (I 4) ; they are usually absolute; Schoul. Ex. & Ad. § 466 ; 19 Ves. 86.
An additional, or, more technically, a cumulative legacy is one given to a legatee to whom a legacy has already been given. It may be given by the same will in which a legacy has already been bequeathed, or by a codicil thereto;' 1 Bro. C. C. 90; Edwards
v. Rainier's Ex'rs, 17 Ohio St. 597; Minor v. Ferris, 22 Conn. 371.
An alternate legacy is one by which the gives one of two or more things without designating which.
A conditional legacy is a bequest the ex istence of which depends upon the happen ing or not happening of some uncertain event ; 1 Rop. Leg. 645. The condition may be either precedent; Wheeler v. Walker, 2 Conn. 196, 7 Am. Dec. 264; Fox v. Phelps, 17 Wend. (N. Y.) 393 ; Inhabitants of Princeton v. Adams, 10 Cush. (Mass.) 129; or subse quent; Brown v. Town of Concord, 33 N. H. 285 ; Finlay v. King's Lessee, 3 Pet. (U. S.) 376, 7 L. Ed. 701; Hammond v. Hammond, 55 Md. 575.
A demonstrative legacy is a bequest of a certain sum of money, stock, or the like, payable out of a particular fund or secur ity ; Wms. Ex. 360; Wallace v. Wallace, 23 N. H. 154; Corbin v. Mills' Ex'rs, 19 Gratt. (Va.) 438; In re Barklay's Estate, 10 Pa. 387 ; Giddings v. Seward, 16 N. Y. 365. See