REPRESENTATIVE

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

REPRESENTATIVEAuthored
The Law Mind • 1344 words
Definition
A representative is a person who stands in the place of another, succeeding to that person's rights, obligations, or legal position, and acting on their behalf or in their stead. The term operates across several distinct legal contexts: 1. Personal representative. An executor or administrator of a deceased person's estate. The personal representative steps into the legal shoes of the decedent with respect to personal property — collecting assets, paying debts, and distributing the estate. The phrase "legal personal representative" is common in older instruments and statutes and carries the same meaning. 2. Real representative. A less common historical usage designating the heir who succeeds to a decedent's real property, as opposed to the personal representative who handles personalty. This sense has largely fallen out of modern usage as the executor's authority has expanded to cover the entire estate in most jurisdictions. 3. Representative by descent or succession (inheritance law). In the law of intestate succession, representation describes the mechanism by which descendants of a deceased heir take the share their parent would have received. A grandchild "represents" a deceased parent in dividing the ancestor's estate. 4. Political or governmental representative. A person elected or appointed to act on behalf of a constituency in a legislative or deliberative body. This sense governs constitutional and administrative law contexts. 5. Authorized agent or fiduciary. More broadly, any person empowered by law, appointment, or agreement to act for another — including guardians, trustees, and attorneys-in-fact — may be described as that person's representative in a given matter. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Typical; having the same properties or interest as a larger group. Representing, showing a likeness. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Fitted to represent; bearing the character or power of another; acting for another or others. Conducted by persons chosen to act as deputies for the people. In ordinary English, "representative" often describes something that is typical or exemplary of a group — a representative sample, for instance. In legal usage, the term carries a structural and fiduciary meaning: a representative does not merely resemble or typify; they legally stand in the place of another, with attendant powers and duties. The political sense (an elected representative) is the closest ordinary meaning to the legal one, but even there the legal term is more technical, imposing specific authority over specific subject matter with accountability to specific parties. ---
Common Confusion
Personal representative vs. representative by representation. These phrases describe two different legal mechanisms that share vocabulary. A personal representative is the executor or administrator — the fiduciary managing the estate. Representation (the doctrine) is the inheritance rule determining who takes when an heir predeceases the decedent. Older texts use both phrases in close proximity, which can mislead researchers into conflating the fiduciary appointment with the succession rule. Representative vs. agent. All representatives act for others, but not all agents are representatives in the technical sense. A representative typically succeeds to or holds another's legal position; an agent acts under delegated authority without necessarily stepping into the principal's legal shoes. The distinction matters in estate law, where the personal representative has independent legal standing to sue and be sued, unlike an ordinary agent. ---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Personal representative: Executor (named in a will) or administrator (appointed by the court) of a decedent's estate. The dominant usage in modern probate law. Legal personal representative: Synonym for personal representative; common in older statutes and instruments, particularly British-derived sources. Real representative: The heir as representative of the ancestor with respect to real property. Largely obsolete in American practice. Representative payee: A person authorized to receive and manage government benefits (commonly Social Security) on behalf of a beneficiary who cannot manage funds independently. A modern administrative law usage not well captured in historical dictionaries. Representative action: A lawsuit brought by one or more parties on behalf of a larger class. Closely related to, though historically distinct from, the modern class action. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The term shifts in meaning depending on the subject matter of the source. In a probate treatise, "representative" almost certainly means personal representative — the executor or administrator. In a constitutional or legislative context, it means an elected official. In an insurance or commercial law source, it may mean an agent. Researchers must establish context before assuming which meaning applies. Historical sources are heavily weighted toward the estates sense. Black's 1st edition, Bouvier's, and Burrill's all lead with the personal representative definition, which reflects the term's dominant usage in nineteenth-century legal writing. Researchers working with pre-twentieth-century materials should expect this framing. The distinction between personal representative and real representative matters when reading older English cases and some early American decisions. Before the consolidation of executor authority over the full estate, the split between personal and real representatives had practical significance — a creditor might need to proceed against one or the other depending on whether the debt was charged against personalty or realty. This distinction is functionally obsolete in most American jurisdictions but remains important for understanding historical case law. The representative payee concept is entirely absent from the historical dictionaries and requires modern administrative sources. Researchers encountering this term in Social Security, veterans' benefits, or disability law contexts should not rely on traditional legal dictionaries. Representative actions in equity — precursors to the class action — appear in historical sources under this label. Researchers tracing the development of class action procedure should look for "representative suit" and "representative action" as the operative vocabulary in pre-Federal Rules materials. Jurisdictional terminology varies. Some states use "personal representative" as the universal term for both executors and administrators; others retain the traditional distinction. Statutory definitions in each jurisdiction's probate code will control. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on the personal representative as the primary legal meaning, with Burrill's offering the clearest functional statement: the representative "occupies another's place, and succeeds to his rights and liabilities." Bouvier's extends this to anyone who has "succeeded to the rights of the decedent, whether by purchase, descent, or operation of law" — a broader formulation that encompasses heirs as well as fiduciaries. Rapalje & Lawrence usefully distinguishes the personal representative (executor or administrator) from the real representative (heir), and also identifies the representative action as a distinct procedural concept. This is one of the more analytically precise treatments across the shelf. Black's 1st edition frames the concept through the lens of standing in another's place, which captures the unifying principle across all the uses. Black's 2nd edition's surviving excerpt focuses on false representation and misrepresentation — a different (and unrelated) legal concept that shares the root word but belongs to contract and tort law rather than to the representative-as-person concept. What the historical sources miss: the representative payee, the class action's modern form, and the administrative law contexts in which the term now regularly operates. They also do not address the political science sense with any depth, treating it as self-evident rather than legally significant. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Most American states now use "personal representative" as the statutory term covering both executors and administrators, following the Uniform Probate Code's consolidation of those roles. Some states retain the traditional terminology. International sources — particularly English and Commonwealth materials — continue to use "legal personal representative" with some frequency, and the phrase appears in older American instruments drafted under English influence. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Alternatives to Guardianship — Supported Decision-Making, Representative Payees, and Powers of Attorney (Law Mind Trusts, Estates & Probate Encyclopedia) ---
Related Terms
Personal representative | Executor | Administrator | Legal personal representative | Real representative | Representation (succession doctrine) | Per stirpes | Per capita | Representative payee | Representative action | Class action | Agent | Fiduciary | Guardian | Trustee | Attorney-in-fact | Heir | Decedent | Estate
REPRESENTATIVEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
Representation is the act of one person representing or stand- ing in the place of another; and he who so represents or stands in the place of another is termed his "representative." Thus, an heir is the representative of the ancestor, and an executor is the representative of the testator, the heir standing in the place of his deceased ancestor with respect to his realty, the executor standing in the place of his de- ceased testator with respect to his personal- ty; and hence the heir is frequently denom inated the "real" representative, and the executor the "personal" representative. Brown; 39 Barb. 516; 2 Steph. Comm. 243. In constitutional law, representatives are those persons chosen by the people to repre- sent their several interests in a legislative body.
REPRESENTATIVEmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
court of session, when his judgment is brought under review. —False representation. A deceitful representation, or one contrary to the fact, made knowingly and with the design and effect of inducing the other party to enter into the contract to which it relates. —Misrepresentation. An intentional false statement respecting a matter of fact, made by one of the parties to a contract, which is material to the contract and influential in producing it—Promissory representation. <A term used chiefly in insur ance, and meaning a representation made by the assured concerning what is to happen during the term of the insurance, stated as a matter of expectation or even of contract, and amounting to a promise to be performed after the contract has come into existence. New Jersey Rubber Co. v. Commercial Union Assur. Co., 64 N. J. Law, 580, 46 Atl. 777.—Representation of persons. A fiction of the law, the effect of which is to put the representative in the place, degree, or right of the person represented. Civ. Code La. art. 804. Representation is the act of one person representing or standing in the place of another; and he who so represents or stands in the place of another is termed his “representative.” Thus, an helr is the representative of the ancestor, and an executor is the representative of the testator, the heir standing in the place of his deceased ancestor with respect to his realty, the executor standing in the place of his deceased testator with respect to his personalty; and hence the heir is frequently denominated the “real” representative, and the executor the “personal” representative. Brown; 2 Steph. Comm. 243. And see Lee v. Dill, 39 Barb. (N. Y.) 520; Staples v. Lewis, 71 Conn. 288, 41 Atl. 815; McCrary v. McCrary, 12 Abb. Prac. (N. Y.) 1. In constitutional law, representatives are these persons chosen by the people to represent their several interests in a legislative body. —Legal representative. <A person who, in the law, represents the person and controls the rights of.:another. Primarily the term meant those artificia] 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, 71 Conn. 288, 41 Atl. 815; Miller v. Metcalf, 77 Conn. 176, 58 Atl. 743; Warnecke v. Lembca, 71 Ill. 95, 12 Am. Rep. 85: Thayer v. Pressey, 175 Mass. 225, 56 N. E. 5: Thompson v. U. 8., 20 Ct. Cl. 278; Cox v. Curwen, 118 Masa. 200; Halsey v. Paterson, 87 N. J. Eq. 448; Merchants’ Nat. Bank v. Abernathy, 82 Mo. App. 211; Hogan v. Page, 2 Wall. 607, 17 4 Ed. 854; Mutual L. Ins. Co. v. Armstrong, 117 U. S. 591, 6 Sup. Ct. 877, 20 L. Ed. 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 89 Ga. 793, 15 8. BE. 670; Com. v. Bryan, 6 Sere. & R. (Pa.) 83; Rarbour v. National Exch. 45 Ohio St. 183, 12 N. E. 5; Griswold v. Sawyer, 125 N. Y. 411, 26 N. E. 464; Lasater y. First Nat. Bank (Tex. Civ. App.) 72 8S. W. -1054.—Personal representatives. This term, in its commonly accepted sense, means executors and administrators; but it may have ® wider meaning, according to the intention of the person using it, and may include heirs, next of kin, descendants, assignees, grantees, receivers, and trustees in insolvency. See Griswold v. Sawyer, 125 N. Y. 411, 26 N. E. 464; Wells v. Bente, 86 Mo. App. 264; Staples v. Lewis, 71 Conn. 288, 41 Atl. 815; Baynes v. Ottey, 1 Myine & K. 465; In re Wilcox & Howe Co., 70 Conn. 220, 39 Atl. 163.—Real representative. He who represents or stands in the place of another, with respect to his real property, is so termed, in contradistinction to him who stands in the place of another, with regard to his personal property, and who is termed the “personal representative.” Thus the heir is the real representative of his deceased ancestor. Brown.—Representative action or suit. <A representative action or suit is one brought by a member of a class of persons on behalf of himself and the other members of the class. In the proceedings before judgment the plaintiff is, as a rule, dominue litia, (g. v.,) and may discontinue or compromise the action as he pleases. Sweet.—Representative democracy. A form of government where the powers of the sovereignty are delegated to a body of men, elected from time to time, who exercise them for the benefit of the whole nation. 31.—Representative peers. the commencement of every new parliament, are elected to represent Scotland and Ireland in the British house of lords; sixteen for the former and twenty-eight for the latter country. Brown. 1 Bouv. Inst. no. Those who, at
REPRESENTATIVEmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883
(1106) the case of personalty, representation only warranty, and having been substantially takes place (1) where the intestate has left complied with, the underwriters were children and grandchildren by deceased liable. Maud & P. Mer. Sh. 395, citing children, in which case the grandchildren stand in their parents' place, and (2) where the intestate has left a mother, or a brother, or sister, and also nephews or nieces by a deceased brother or sister, in which case the nephews or nieces take their parents' share. See DISTRIBUTION; NEXT OF KIN; PER CAPITA. 3. Contract. - In the law of contracts, a representation is a statement or assertion made by one party to the other, before or at the time of the contract, of some matter or circumstance relating to it. In ordinary contracts a representation as such has no legal effect, even if untrue, and even if the person making it knew it to be so. Thus, if a vendor of goods simply represents them as worth a high price, while in fact they are not, this gives the purchaser no right either to rescind the contract or to bring an action of damages. (See CAVEAT EMPTOR.) But a representation may take the form of a warranty or condition, or may amount to fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation, all of which have important legal effects. Behn v. Burness, 3 Best & S. 751; Poll. Cont. 445, 476. See the respective titles. 24. Insurance. -Contracts of insurance being contracts uberrimæ fidei (q. v.), representations which relate to material facts connected with an insurance must be complied with, but a substantial compliance is sufficient. Thus, where the assured asserted that his vessel mounted twelve guns and twenty men, and the ship sailed with less than this number of men and guns, but carried in addition a number of boys and swivels, which made her force in fact greater than that stated, it was held that, this being a representation and not a share descend to C. and D. in equal shares, D. standing in the place of his deceased mother, (1 Hayes Conv. 314.) No doubt this result would be absurd, the obvious conclusion being that the legislature did not contemplate such a case. It has, in fact, been decided that in the case above supposed B.'s share descends to D. (Cooper r. France, 14 Jur. 214; 19 L. J., Ch. 313.) No reasons are given for the decision except that the same results would have followed under the old law, and that the act did not intend to make an alteration. In addition to this reason, however, it is argued by Mr. Joshua Williams (R. Pawson v. Watson, 2 Cowp. 785. 25. Public Worship Act. Under the English Public Worship Act, 1874, complaints against incumbents, &c., on matters within that act, are made by a document called a "representation," containing a statement of the nature of complaint, and signed by the person or persons making it. § 8. See PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION Aст. REPRESENTATION, (in insurance law). Cranch (U. S.) 506; 16 Am. Dec. 463 n. (distinguished from "warranty"). 3 Woodb. & M. (U. S.) 529; 21 Conn. 19; 31 Me. 219; 12 Cush. (Mass.) 416; 10 Pick. (Mass.) 535; 5 Vr. (N. J.) 244; 1 Edw. (N. Y.) 64, 74; 1 Hill (N. Y.) 510; 6 Wend. (N. Y.) 488; 13 Id. 92; 16 Id. 481; 48 Pa. St. 367; 4 R. I. 141; 6 Wheel. Am. C. L. 102; 1 T. R. 343. REPRESENTATION, FALSE, (what constitutes). 7 Cranch (U. S.) 506. (1107) Cave, 17 Ch. D. 19.) As soon as judgment is given for the plaintiff he ceases to be dominus litis, and all members of the class who are willing to contribute to the expenses of the suit may join in, and take the benefit of, the subsequent proceedings. Dan. Ch. Pr. 215, 694. REPRESENTATIVE, (defined). 28 Mich. 228; 16 Abb. (N. Y.) Pr. 92; 39 Barb. (N. Y.) 516. (in practice act). 26 Cal. 23. REPRESENTATIVE OF A DECEASED PERSON, (means executors and administrators). 12 Abb. (N. Y.) Pr. 1. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DECEASED, (in a statute). 34 Barb. (N. Y.) 434. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DEVISOR, (in a statute). 40 Barb. (N. Y.) 537.
REPRESENTATIVEa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Fitted to represent; exhibiting a similitude. Bearing the character or power of another; acting for another or others; as, a council representative of the people. Swift. Conducted by persons chosen to represent, or act as deputies for, the people; as, a representative government. Serving or fitted to present the full characters of the type of a group; typical; as, a representative genus in a family. Similar in general appearance, structure, and habits, but living in different regions; -- said of certain species and varieties. Giving, or existing as, a transcript of what was originally presentative knowledge; as, representative faculties; representative knowledge. See Presentative, 3 and Represent, 8.
REPRESENTATIVEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
One who, or that which, represents (anything); that which exhibits a likeness or similitude. A statute of Rumor, whispering an idiot in the ear, who was the representative of Credulity. Addison. Difficulty must cumber this doctrine which supposes that the perfections of God are the representatives to us of whatever we perceive in the creatures. Locke. An agent, deputy, or substitute, who supplies the place of another, or others, being invested with his or their authority. One who represents, or stands in the place of, another. A member of the lower or popular house in a State legislature, or in the national Congress. [U.S.] That which presents the full character of the type of a group. A species or variety which, in any region, takes the place of a similar one in another region.
representativeadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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Typical; having the same properties or interest as a larger group. | Representing, showing a likeness.
representativenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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A delegate. | Someone who represents others as a member of a legislative or governing body. | A delegate. | One who speaks for or acts on behalf of another in a particular (especially official) capacity. | A delegate. | An heir. | A delegate. | Specifically, a member of the United States House of Representatives. | A delegate. | A company agent who visits potential purchasers; a salesman. | Something standing for something else. | Something representing or standing for another; a symbol, an embodiment. | Something standing for something else. | A member of a particular class. | Something standing for something else. | A member of a particular class. | Something (especially a living organism) regarded as typical of its class; a type. | Something standing for something else. | A member of a particular class. | A consistent choice of element from an equivalence class, used to identify it. | Something standing for something else. | A substitute or analogue.

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