Pronunciations
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/ˌdiːvəˈsteɪvɪt/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
Noun
Waste or misapplication of the assets of a deceased person by an executor or administrator; devastation.
- Examples
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More examples (5)
Waſt may be committed by ſelling or confuſing the Teſtator's Goods, leaving debts unpaid. By […] not having enough to pay them by ſelling of the Teſtator's Goods at an undervalue if by Covin, but if upon a judgment the Sheriff ſell them at undervalue, this is no Devaſtavit in the Executor.
If an Executor pay an Uſurious Bond, other Creditors may make a Devaſtavit of it, Hob. p. 167. If a Man be bound in an Obligation Uſurious, the Bond is void between the Parties, yea and Strangers ſhall take the advantage of it; and therefore if ſuch an Obligor makes his Executor and die, and the Executor pay the uſurious Bond, other Creditors may ſhew it, and make a Devaſtavit of it, in Winchcomb and the Biſhop of Wincheſter’s Caſe.
An executor is guilty of a devastavit if he pays legacies before the debts. […] If an administrator pay the debts of the intestate in such order as the law appoints to the value of all the goods with his own money, he may lawfully dispose of the goods as he pleases, and it will not be a devastavit.
In the case of an executor committing a devastavit, and a decree for payment of the amount, the debt is considered as due from the time of the devastavit, and not from the date of the decree; […]
A representative may, as we have seen, be answerable personally to creditors of the deceased, even for acts done to the best of his judgment, or in the conscientious discharge of his duty. Much more is he so for wrongful acts. These acts are known in legal language as devastavits or acts whereby he has "wasted" or squandered the assets.
He was without authority, as the administrator in chief was without duty to him, for defaults or devastavits during the preceding administration.
In full, writ of devastavit: a writ issued against an executor or administrator claiming compensation for such misapplication of assets.