Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/117

HARVARD LAW REVIEW. VOL. V. OCTOBER 15, 1891. No. 3. A BRIEF SURVEY OF EQUITY JURISDICTION. 1 VII. — Creditors' Bills. IN the preceding article the writer was compelled to confine himself strictly to the question, why Equity has jurisdiction over creditors' bills ; and, therefore, nothing was said as to the consequences which have followed from the establishment of that jurisdiction. And yet those consequences are much more im- portant, if not more interesting, than the mere fact of the existence of the jurisdiction or the reasons upon which it was founded. To those consequences, therefore, the reader's attention will be directed in the present article. Prior to the establishment of the jurisdiction over creditors' bills equity had nothing to do with the administration of the estates of deceased persons. Now, the personal estates of all deceased persons are, in England, administered in equity; and the first stage in this great legal revolution was the establishment of the jurisdiction of equity over creditors' bills. The administration of the personal estate of a deceased person consists first in collecting the debts due to the estate, and in con- verting the specific property, not specifically bequeathed, into money; secondly, in paying the debts due from the estate, in delivering the specific legacies, in paying the pecuniary legacies, and in paying the residue to the residuary legatee or next of kin, as the case may be. The doing of these various acts constitutes the duty of the executor. 2 If he does them voluntarily, and to 1 Continued from Vol. IV. p. 127. 2 As there are no material differences, for the purposes of this article, between an executor and an administrator, it will generally be assumed that the deceased person is a testator, and that his personal representative is an executor.