Devastavit

The mismanagement and waste by an executor, administrator, or other trustee, of the estate and effects trusted to him as such, by which a loss occurs.

— Devastavit by direct abuse takes place when the executor, administrator, or trustee sells, embezzles, or converts to his own use goods intrusted to him; Com. Dig. Administration (I 1); Smith v. Ayer, 101 U. S. 327, 25 L. Ed. 955; releases a claim due to the estate; 3 Bacon, Abr. 700; Cro. Eliz. 43; De Diemar v. Van Wagenen, 7 Johns. (N. Y.) 404; Dawes v. Boylston, 9 Mass. 352, 6 Am. Dec. 72;

— or surrenders a lease; People v. Pleas, 2 Johns. Cas. (N. Y.) 376; 3 P, Wins. 330; Camp v. Smith, 68 N. C. 537; below its value.

These instances sufficiently show that any wilful waste of the property will be considered a direct devastavit.

See Lacoste v. Splivalo, 64 Cal. 35, 30 Pac. 571.

Devastavit by mal-administration most frequently occurs by the payment of claims which were not due nor owing, or by paying others out of the order in which they ought to be paid, or by the payment of legacies before all the debts are satisfied; Thomas v. Riegel, 5 Rawle (Pa.) 266; Chapin v. Waters, 110 Mass. 195; Lewis v. Mason's Adm'r, 84 Va. 731, 10 S. E. 529. Devastavit by neglect. Negligence on the part of an executor, administrator, or trustee may equally tend to the waste of the estate as the direct destruction or mal-administration of the assets, and render him guilty of a devastavit. The neglect to sell the goods at a fair price, within a reasonable time, or, if they are perishable goods, before they are wasted, will be a devastavit; and a neglect to collect a doubtful debt which by proper exertion might have been collected will be so considered.

Bacon, Abr. Executors, L. See Matter of Childs, 5 Misc. 560, 26 N. Y. Supp. 721; Baer's Appeal, 127 Pa. 360, 18 Atl. 1, 4 L. R. A. 609; Mills' Adm'r v. Talley's Adm'r, 83 Va. 361, 5 S. E. 368; Sterling v. Wilkinson, 83 Va. 791, 3 S. E. 533; Adkins v. Hutchings, 79 Ga. 260, 4 S. E. 887.

The law requires from trustees good faith and due diligence, the want of which is punished by making them responsible for the losses which may be sustained by the property intrusted to them: when, therefore, a party has been guilty of a devastavit, he is required to make up the loss out of his own estate.

See Com. Dig. Administration, I; Belt, Suppl. to Ves. 209; In re Strong's Estate, 160 Pa. 13, 28 Atl. 480; Franklin v. Low, 1 Johns. (N. Y.) 396; Bacon, Abr. Executors, L; 11 Toullier 58.

The return of nulla bona testatoris nee propria and a devastavit to the writ of execution de bonis testatoris, in an action against an executor or administrator, is called a devastavit. Upon this return the plaintiff may forthwith sue out an execution in an action against him sued in his own right. This is not, however, a common use of the word; Brown, Diet. DEVENERUNT (Lat. devenire, to come to). A writ, now obsolete, directed to tbe king's escheators when any one of the king's tenants in capite dies, and when his son and heir dies within age and in the king's custody, commanding the escheat, or that by the oaths of twelve good and lawful men they shall inquire what lands or tenements by the death of the tenant have come to the king.

Dy. 360; Keilw. 199 o; Blount; Cowell.

DEVEST or DIVEST. To deprive, to take away; opposite to invest, which is to deliver possession of anything to another.

Wharton.