ASSETS

assessments," or, in England, The periodical demands made by a mutual insurance company, under its charter and by- laws, upon the makers of premium notes, are also denominated "assessments." Of damages. Fixing the amount of dam- ages to which the successful party in a suit is entitled after an interlocutory judgment has been taken. Assessment of damages is also the name given to the determination of the sum which a corporation proposing to take lands for a public use must pay in satisfaction of the de- mand proved or the value taken. In insurance. An apportionment made in general average upon the various articles and interests at risk, according to their value at the time and place of being in safety, for contribution for damage and sacrifices pur- posely made, and expenses incurred for es- cape from impending common peril. 2 Phil. Ins. c. xv.

In probate law. Property of a decedent available for the payment of debts and legacies; the estate coming to the heir or personal representative which is charge- able, in law or equity, with the obligations which such heir or representative is required, in his representative capacity, to discharge. In an accurate and legal sense, all the personal property of the deceased which is of a salable pat- ure, and may be converted into ready money, is deemed assets. But the word is not confined to such property; for all other property of the de- ceased which is chargeable with his debts or lega cies, and is applicable to that purpose, is, in a large sense, assets. 1 Story, Eq. Jur. § 531. Assets per descent. That portion of the an- cestor's estate which descends to the heir, and which is sufficient to charge him, as far as it goes, with the specialty debts of his an- cestors. 2 Williams, Ex'rs, 1011.

(86) ASSESSMENTS, (in a will). 9 C. E. Gr. (N. J.) 359. 58, 478. (in municipal charter). 7 Vr. (N. J.) ASSESSOR.-(1) In the Scotch and civil law, a skilled person, or expert in some science unsolved in the trial of a had merely a power of appointment. Real assets are such as descend to the heir; the lands or other real property of the deceased which are liable for payment of his debts, whether he has devised or charged them for that purpose, or not. (Wms. Real Prop. 82; Wms. Real Ass.) Personal assets are such as pass to the representative, and do not descend to the heir. The cause, who sat with the judge and gave him advice. In England it is the practice of the High Court and Court of Appeal in distinction between the various classes of admiralty business (following the practice of the Court of Admiralty) to call in assessors, in cases involving questions of navigation or seamanship. They are called "nautical assessors," and are always Brethren of the Trinity House.* (2) An officer appointed to make assessments. ASSESSOR, (defined). 10 Mass. 116. assets is of importance with reference to the order of their administration, where the residuary estate is insufficient for payment of all the debts. See ADMINISTRATION. 3. Legal and equitable.-Another division of assets is into legal and equita. ble. Legal assets comprise everything which an executor takes virtute officii, and (to compute amount due under direcwith which he would have been charged tion of court). 100 Mass. 191, 193. ASSETS.-NORMAN-FRENCH: asetz, asset, enough or satisfaction; LATIN: ad and satis. Britt. 192b; Littre, Dict. 8. v. Assez. See MARSHALLING. 1. Generally, assets are property available for the payment of the debts of a person or corporation. The term is sometimes applied to the property of a living person, e. g. a bankrupt or a married woman whose property has vested in her husband, and to the extent of which he is liable for her debts or liabilities contracted before marriage. It is, however, more often applied to the property of a deceased person, or of a partnership or company which has ceased to carry on business, and is being wound up. See DISSOLUTION; ESTATE; WINDING-UP. 2. Of deceased person. The assets of a deceased person are of various kinds, according as they consist of real or personal estate belonging absolutely to the deceased, or of property over which he * Under the Judicature Act, 1873, the High Court, or Court of Appeal, may call in the aid one or more assessors, in any action or matter, (Sect. 56; Rules of Court, xxxvi.); and by the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, provision is made for the appointment and attendance of the archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, as assessors of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in ecclesiastical appeals. (Sect. 14; Reg. Gen. Nov. 15th, 1876; 2 P. D. 384.) Assessors are also employed in various Inquiries of a judicial character, e. g. in courts of survey and investigations by wreck commissioners, under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876. (As to assessors in county court actions, see Poll. C. C. Pr. 105.) An assessor differs from a referee (q. v.) in having no voice or power in in an action at law by a creditor, while equitable assets are such as could only be reached by the creditor in a court of equity. Thus, personal estate, including leaseholds, is legal assets, while land charged or devised by a testator for payment of debts, and equitable interests in or trusts of chattels, &c., are equitable assets.t 4. Assets by descent are lands which descend to an heir charged with the debts or obligations of his ancestor. The term was originally used in the law of warranty (q. v.) to signify land which descended to an heir of equal value to land as to which his ancestor had entered into a warranty: thus, if A. was heir to his mother, subject to his father's estate by the curtesy, and the father aliened the land with warranty and died, this warranty did not bar A.'s title to the land without assets in fee simple, i. e. unless land in fee simple of equal value descended to him from his father. (Stat. 6 Edw. I.; Litt. § 724; Co. Litt. 365a, 374 b.) The term "assets by descent" was afterwards applied where a man died leaving debts by specialty in which his heirs were bound, in which case his heir was liable to pay the debts, so far as he had deciding questions, his duties being confined to assisting the deliberations of the court. † The distinction is of importance in England, with reference to the estates of persons who died before the 1st January, 1870, because in the case of such a person leaving an insolvent estate his debts are payable out of the legal assets in a different order from equitable assets. (2 White & T. Lead Cas. 101.) In the case of any person dying on or after the 1st January, 1870, his debts, whether by specialty or simple contract, are paid pari passu out of the assets without priority one over another (Stat. 32 and 33 Vict. c. 46), and there is, therefor

Property of a deceased person, subject by law to the payment of his debts and legacies; -- called assets because sufficient to render the executor or administrator liable to the creditors and legatees, so far as such goods or estate may extend. Story. Blackstone. Effects of an insolvent debtor or bankrupt, applicable to the payment of debts. The entire property of all sorts, belonging to a person, a corporation, or an estate; as, the assets of a merchant or a trading association; -- opposed to liabilities.

Any property or object of value that one possesses, usually considered as applicable to the payment of one's debts. | The left side of a balance sheet. | Sufficient estate; property sufficient in the hands of an executor or heir to pay the debts or legacies of the testator or ancestor to satisfy claims against it. | Any goods or property properly available for the payment of a bankrupt's or a deceased person's obligations or debts. | Private parts; a woman's breasts or buttocks, or a man's genitalia.

plural of asset