Executor De Son Tort. - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition executor-de-son-tort

Definition :

Executor de son tort. See (English) A.E. Act, 1925, ss. 28, 29, and s. 55(1)(xi.). If a stranger take upon himself to act as executor or administrator (see 14 Halsbury's L. of E., 2nd Edn., para. 282), without any just authority (as by intermeddling with the goods of the deceased, and any other transactions), he is called in Law an executor of his own wrong, de son tort, and is liable to the extent of the assets which have come to him and to all the trouble of an executorship without any of the profits or advantages; but the doing of acts of necessity or humanity, as locking up the goods or burying the corpse of the deceased, will not amount to such an intermeddling as will charge a man as executor of his own wrong. Such an one cannot bring an action himself in right of the deceased; but actions may be brought against him, 1 Wms. Exors.; and see Peters v. Leeder, (1878) 47 LJ QB 573; A.-G. v. New York Breweries Co., 1899 AC 62. As to his liability in respect of a term of years of which the deceased was assignee, see Stratford-upon-Avon Corporation v. Parker, (1914) 2 KB 562.

An executor de son tort can discharge his liability by obtaining probate if he is entitled, or by accounting to the personal representative, or to the Court, in an administration by the Court.