Specific Legacy
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A gift by will of some particular thing of a personal nature.
Specific legacy
A legacy is general, where its amount or value is a charge upon the general assets in the hands of the executors, and where, if these are sufficient to meet all the provisions in the will, it must be satisfied; it is specific, when it is limited to a particular thing, subject, or chose in action so identified as to render the bequest inapplicable to any other, — as the bequest of a horse, a picture, or jewel, or a debt due from a person named, and, in special cases, even of a sum of money.
Langdon V. Aster, 3 Duer, ill, 543.
A bequest of a sum of money generally, without mentioning out of what fund it is to be paid, is to be regarded as a general legacy, although designated in the residuary clause as a " specific " legacy.
Parker V. Moore, 25 N..T. Eq. 228.