Assets

All the stock In trade, cash, and all available property belonging to a merchant or company. The property in the hands of an heir, executor, administrator, or trustee, which is legally or equitably chargeable with the obligations which such heir, executor, administrator, or other trustee is, as such, required to discharge.

Assets enter mains

Assets in hand. Such property as at once comes to the executor or other trustee, for the purpose of satisfying claims against him as such.

Teiines de la Lev

Equitable assets. Such as can be reached only by the aid of a court of equity, and which are to be divided, pari passu, among all the creditors; 2 Fonblanque 401; Willis, Trust 118.

Legal assets

Such as constitute the fund for the payment of debts according to their legal priority.

Assets per descent

That portion of the ancestor's estate which descends to the heir, and which is sulhcient to charge him, as far as it goes, with the specialty debts of his ancestors; 2 Williams, Ex. (7th Am. ed.) •1553.

Personal assets

Goods and personal chattels to which the executor or administrator is entitled.

Real assets

Such as descend to the heir, as an estate in fee-simple. In the United States, generally, by statute, all the property of a decedent, real and personal, is liable for his debts, and is to be applied as follows, when no statute prescribes a different order of application, exestate not specifically bequeathed; s. -tate devised or ordered to be sold f.>r the payment of debts; third, real estate descended but not charged with debts; fourth. real estate devised, charged generally with the payment of debts; fifth, general pecuniary legacies pro rata; sixth, real estate devised, not charged with debts; 4 Kent 421; 2 1 Wh. & T. Lead. Cas. 72. With regard to the distinction between realty and personalty in this respect, iug crops go to the administrator; Penhallow v. Dwight 7 Mass. 34, 5 Am. Dec. 23; Kain v. Fisher, 6 N. V. 597; Cheney v. Roodhouse, 135 111. 257, 25 N. E. 1019; he is entitled to a crop of cotton, the cultivation »t v.i.i jh was practically completed at intestate's death, although it was harvested and sold by the heirs; Marx v. Nelms, 95 Ala. 304, 10 South. 551. See Wright v. Watson, 96 Ala. 530, 11 South. 034; so do nurseries, though not trees in general; Chapman v. City of Lowell, 4 Cush. (Mass.) 380; as do bricks in a kiln; Taunton Copper Co. v. Ins. Co., 22 Pick. (Mass.) 110; so do chattels real, as interests for years and mortgages; and hence the administrator must bring the action if the mortgagor die before foreclosing; Lewis' Heirs v. Lingo, 3 A. K. Marsh. ( Ky. i 249; so does rent provided the intestate dies before it is due; oil produced after testator's death and accruing as royalty, being the consideration for the lease, is not of the corpus but a part of the income of the estate; In re Woodburn's Estate, 138 Pa. 606, 21 Atl. 16, 21 Am. St. Rep. 932. Fixtures go to the heir; 2 Smith, Lead. Cas. 99; Jackson v. Twenty man, 2 Pet. (U. S.) 137, 7 L, Ed. 374; Swift v. Thompson, 9 Conn. 67, 21 Am. Dec. 718. In copyrights and patents the administrator has right enough to get them extended and beyond the customary time; Wilson v. Rousseau, 4 How. (U. S.) 646, 11 L. Ed. 1141. Where land is sold in partition, and one dies before the proceeds are distributed, his share passes as personalty to his administrator; State v. Harper, 54 Mo. App. 286. Land which an executor is directed to sell is personalty; 6 Ves. 520; S Yes. 547; Thomman's Estate, 161 Pa. 444, 29 Atl. 84; but a naked discretionary power of sale will not work a conversion until it is exercised: Sheridan v. Sheridan, 136 Pa. 14, 19 Atl. IOCS; Darlington v. Darlington. 160 Pa. 65, 28 Atl. 503; In re Pyott's Estate, 160 Pa. 441, 28 Atl. 915, 921. Where the right of eminent domain has been exercised it converts the land into personalty in Pennsylvania; Hough's Estate, 3 D. R. Pa. 187; but not in New Jersey: Wetherill v. Hough, 52 N. J. Eq. 683, 29 Atl. 591". The wife's paraphernalia cannot be taken from her, in England, for the benefit of the children and heirs, but may be for creditors. In the Unitis not assets. So among things reserved is the widow's quarantine, i. e. forty days of food and clothing; Griswold v. Chandler, 5 N. H. 495; Washburn v. Hale, 10 Pick. (Mass.) 430. A claim against the United States is not a local asset in the District of Columbia; King v. U. S., 27 Ct. CI. 529. See Woerner, Am. L. of Admn.

See Marshalling of Assets.