A portion of his personal estate which a father cannot by will leave away from his children. Where he leaves a widow, the legitim is one-third of the personal estate; where he does not leave a widow, it is one-half. It is divided equally among the children alive at the father's death, excluding the heir-at-law, unless he choose to collate, i.e., bring the real estate into hotchpot.
Definition source
Kinnear, J. B., Digest of House of Lords Cases Decided on Appeal from Scotland, 1709-1864 — Glossary of Scottish Law Terms (Edinburgh, 1865). Public domain.
Legal Subject: Legitim. |
| Case | Date | Legal Subject | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rebecca Hog v. Thomas Hog | 1791 | Succession, Jurisdiction, Legitim., Debt, Aliment, Collation | Rebecca Hog pursued Thomas Hog of Newliston regarding an estate that included moveables situated in England, and Thomas answered that the Court might apply English law to those assets. After the Court pronounced an interlocutor, Thomas reclaimed and presented an additional petition, which Mrs Lashley and her husband answered by alleging that he had failed to comply with the order to furnish full states of the estate. |
