Definition
Latin: "of the goods not administered." A phrase describing the unfinished or unadministered portion of a decedent's estate that remains after the original administrator has died, been removed, or otherwise left the administration incomplete. Administration de bonis non is the grant of authority to a successor administrator — called the administrator de bonis non — to settle whatever the prior administrator left undone: collecting remaining assets, paying outstanding debts, and distributing residue to those entitled.
The phrase operates both as a descriptor of the estate condition (assets not yet administered) and as a shorthand label for the successor appointment itself. Courts and practitioners use "de bonis non" or the abbreviation "d.b.n." to refer to the limited, successor nature of the appointment.
Where the original fiduciary was an executor rather than an administrator, the successor appointment is styled administrator de bonis non cum testamento annexo — "of the goods not administered, with the will annexed" — commonly abbreviated d.b.n.c.t.a. That form applies when the original executor named in a will cannot complete the work and no alternate executor is available or willing to serve.
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Common Confusion
De bonis non administratis is sometimes conflated with cum testamento annexo (c.t.a.) administration. The distinction matters: c.t.a. administration arises when no executor was named or qualified in the first instance; de bonis non administration arises when a prior fiduciary — whether an executor or administrator — began work but left it unfinished. The hybrid d.b.n.c.t.a. combines both circumstances. Researchers encountering these abbreviations in historical probate records should confirm which circumstance applied before drawing conclusions about the nature of the appointment or the condition of the estate.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in probate and estate administration contexts. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should watch for several navigational issues.
First, scope of authority. An administrator de bonis non steps into a circumscribed role. The appointment does not reach assets that the prior administrator lawfully administered and closed — only what remains open. Historical records may be ambiguous about exactly what was "left" when the prior administrator's authority ended, particularly in estates spanning years or involving contested accounts. Researchers should not assume that a d.b.n. appointment signals wrongdoing; it often reflects nothing more than the death of the first administrator mid-process.
Second, abbreviation variation. In older probate dockets, court minutes, and estate papers, the phrase appears in shortened forms: "d.b.n.," "de bonis non," "admin. d.b.n.," and the hybrid "d.b.n.c.t.a." Consistency across a corpus is not guaranteed. Records from ecclesiastical courts in England may use different conventions than American probate courts.
Third, testate versus intestate estates. When a will exists and the named executor cannot complete administration, the correct form is d.b.n.c.t.a., but historical documents sometimes use "de bonis non" loosely regardless of whether a will was present. Researchers tracing a specific estate should confirm the underlying instruments rather than relying on the label alone.
Fourth, jurisdictional procedure. The procedural mechanics of how a d.b.n. administrator is appointed, what bond is required, and what accounting the new administrator must render for the prior fiduciary's acts vary across jurisdictions and time periods. A term that appears stable in definition is less stable in operational practice.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in close agreement on the core meaning, which reflects the term's stability as a technical Latin phrase in common law administration. Black's (both editions) defines de bonis non administratis as arising when "an administrator is appointed to succeed another, who has left the estate partially unsettled." Burrill adds useful procedural texture, noting that the prior administrator's exit may result from "death, removal, &c.," and cross-references Stephen's Commentaries for the underlying doctrine.
No significant divergence exists among the sources, which is expected: this is a descriptive Latin phrase with a fixed referent in common law probate practice. What the historical dictionaries collectively underemphasize is the d.b.n.c.t.a. variant — the testate version — which in practice may be more frequently encountered than pure intestate de bonis non appointments. Researchers relying solely on these dictionary entries may not immediately recognize the hybrid form when they encounter it.
Burrill's partial entry (truncated in the source material here) likely elaborated on the administrator's powers and the distinction from the original grant, consistent with his treatment of related administration entries elsewhere in that work.
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Jurisdictional Note
American states have largely codified the circumstances under which a successor personal representative may be appointed, often without using the Latin phrase at all. Researchers working with post-twentieth-century probate records may find the functional concept present but the term absent. English ecclesiastical court records and early American colonial probate records are more likely to use the Latin terminology explicitly.
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