Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/30

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18
Private
Book III.

Chapter the second.

Of Redress by the mere operation of Law.


The remedies for private wrongs, which are effected by the mere operation of law, will fall within a very narrow compaſs: there being only two inſtances of this ſort that at preſent occur to my recollection; the one that of retainer, where a creditor is made executor or adminiſtrator to his debtor; the other, in the caſe of what the law calls a remitter.

I. If a perſon indebted to another makes his creditor or debtee his executor, or if ſuch creditor obtains letters of adminiſtration to his debtor; in theſe caſes the law gives him a remedy for his debt, by allowing him to retain ſo much as will pay himſelf, before any other creditors whoſe debts are of equal degree[1]. This is a remedy by the mere act of law, and grounded upon this reaſon; that the executor cannot, without an apparent abſurdity, commence a ſuit againſt himſelf as repreſentative of the deceaſed, to recover that which is due to him in his own private capacity: but, having the whole perſonal eſtate in his hands, ſo much as is ſufficient to anſwer his own demand is, by operation of law, applied to that particular purpoſe. Elſe, by being made executor, he would be put in a worſe condition than

  1. 1. Roll. Abr. 922. Plowd. 543.
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