The executor is the person named in a will that manages and distributes the property of the person who has died. The executor manages the estate property including collecting money owed to the estate, paying debts and taxes and will then distribute the proceeds of the estate as specified within the will. The executor is involved in any probate court proceedings that may occur and may also be called a personal representative.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A person appointed by a testator to carry out the directions and requests in his will, and to dispose of the property according to his testamentary provisions after his decease. Scott v. Guernsey, 60 Barb. (N. Y.) 175; In re Lamb’s Estate, 122 Mich. 239, 80 N. W. 1061; Compton v. Mc Mahan, 19 Mo. App. 505. One to whom another man commits by his last will the execution of that will and testament. 2 Bl. Comm. 503. A person to whom a testator by his will commits the execution, or putting in force, of that instrument and its codicils. Fonbl. 307. They are either general or special. The former term denotes an executor who is to have charge of the whole estate, wherever found, and administer it to a final settlement; while a special executor is only empowered by the will to take charge of a limited portion of the estate, or such part as may lie in one place, or to carry on the administration only to a prescribed point. They are either instituted or substituted. An instituted executor is one who is appointed by the testator without any condition; while a substituted executor is one named to fill the office in case the person first nominated should refuse to act. Executor a lege constitutus, an executor appointed by law; the ordinary of the diocese. Executor ab episcopo constitutus, or executor dativus, an executor appointed by the bishop; an administrator to an intestate. Executor d testatore constitutus, an executor appointed by a testator. Otherwise termed “executor testamentarius;” a testamentary executor. An executor to the tenor is one who, though not directly constituted executor by the will, is therein charged with duties in relation to the estate which can only be performed by the executor. Executor creditor. In Scotch law. A creditor of a decedent who obtains a grant of administration on the estate, at least to the extent of so much of it as will be sufficient to discharge his debt, when the executor named in the will has declined to serve, as also those other persons who would be preferentially entitled to administer. Executor dative. In Scotch law. One appointed by the court; equivalent to the English “administrator with the will annexed.”Executor de son tort. Executor of his own wrong. A person who assumes to act as executor of an estate without any lawful warrant or authority, but who, by his intermeddling, makes himself liable as an executor to a certain extent. If a stranger takes upon him to act as executor without any just authority, (as by intermeddling with the goods of the deceased, and many other transactions,) he is called in law an “executor of his own wrong,” de son tori. 2 Bl. Comm. 507. Allen v. Hurst, 120 Ga. 763, 48 S. E. 341; Noon v. Finnegan, 29 Minn. 418, 13 N. W. 197; Brown v. Leavitt, 26 N. H. 495; Hinds v. Jones, 48 Me. 349. Executor lucratus. An executor who has assets of his testator who in his lifetime made himself liable by a wrongful interference with the property of another. 6 Jur. {N. S.) 543. General executor. One whose power is not limited either territorially or as to the duration or subject of his trust. Joint executors. Co executors; two or more who are joined in the execution of a will. Limited executor. An executor whose appointment is qualified by limitations as to the time or place wherein, or the subject matter whereon, the office is to be exercised; as distinguished from one whose appointment is absolute, t. e., certain and immediate, without any restriction in regard to the testator’s effects or limitation in point of time. 1 Williams, Ex’rs, 249, etseq. Special executor. One whose power and office are limited, either in respect to the time or place of their exercise, or restricted to a particular portion of the decedent’s estate. In the civil law. A ministerial officer who executed or carried into effect the judgment or sentence in a cause.