legal representative

Sometimes used for "personal representative" (q. v.).

A person who, in the law, represents the person and controls the rights of another. Primarily the term meant those artificial representatives of a deceased person, the executors and administrators, who by law represented the deceased, in distinction from the heirs, who were the "natural" representatives. But as, under statutes of distribution, executors and administrators are no longer the sole representatives of the deceased as to personal property, the phrase has lost much of its original distinctive force, and is now used to describe either executors and administrators or children, descendants, next of kin, or distributees. Moreover, the phrase is not always used in its technical sense nor always with reference to the estate of a decedent; and in such other connections its import must be determined from the context; so that, in its general sense of one person representing another, or succeeding to the rights of another, or standing in the place of another, it may include an assignee in bankruptcy or insolvency, an assignee for the benefit of creditors, a receiver, an assignee of a mortgage, a grantee of land, a guardian, a purchaser at execution sale, a widow, or a surviving partner. See Staples v. Lewis, 7l Conn. 288, 41 Atl. 815; Miller v. Metcalf, 77 Conn. 176, 58 Atl. 743; Wamecke v. Lembca, 71 III95, 12 Am. Rep. 85; Thayer v. Pressey, 175 Mass. 225, 56 N. E. 5; Thompson v. U. S., 20 Ct. Cl. 278; Cox v. Curwen, 118 Mass. 200; Halsey v. Paterson, 37 N, J. Eq. 448; Merchants' Nat. Bank v. Abernathy, 32 Mo. App. 211; Hogan v. Page, 2 Wall. 607, 17 In Ed. 854 ; Mutuni L. Ins. Co. v. Armstrong, 117 U. S. 591, 6 Sun. Ct. 877, 29 Ij. Eld. 997; Wright v. First Nat. Bank, 30 Fed. Cas. 673; Henderson Nat. Bank v. Alves, 91 Ky. 142, 15 S. W. 132; McLain v. Bedgood, S9 Ga. 793, 15 S. E. 670; Com. v. Bryan, 6 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 83; Barbour v. National Exch. Bank, 45 Ohio St. 133, 12 N. E. 5; Griswold v. Sawyer, 125 N. Y. 411, 26 N. E. 464 ; Lasat-er v. First Nat. Bank (Tex. Civ. App.) 72 S. W. 1054.

Defined under Representative in Black's Law Dictionary.

A person who, in the law, represents the person and controls the rights of another. The phrase is commonly used as the equivalent of “executor” or “administrator.” The term imports a higher authority than “acent,” for an agent acts for his principal, who retains the beneficial right; but the legal representative succeeds to the place of the former owner, and is vested with his title.