Extracted From:
  A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856
  by John Bouvier, CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA


DEVASTAVIT. A devastavit is a mis-management and waste by an executor,
administrator, or other trustee of the estate and effects trusted to him, as
such, by which a loss occurs. 

It takes place by direct abuse, by mal-administration, and by neglect. 

  1. By direct abuse. This takes place when the executor, administrator, or
trustee, sells, embezzles, or converts to his own use, the goods entrusted to
him; ... releases a claim due to the estate; ... or surrenders a lease below its
value.... These instances sufficiently show that any willful waste of the
property will be considered as a direct devastavit. 

  2. By mal-administration. Devastavit by mal-administration most frequently
occurs by the payment of claims which were not due nor owing; or by paying
others out of the order in which they ought to be paid; or by the payment of
legacies before all the, debts have been satisfied....

  3. By neglect. Negligence on the part of an executor, administrator, or
trustee, may equally tend to the waste of the estate, as the direct destruction
or mal-administration of the assets, and render him guilty of a devastavit. The
neglect to sell the goods at a fair price, within a reasonable time, or, if they
are perishable goods, before they are wasted, will be a devastavit. And a
neglect to collect a doubtful debt, which by proper exertion might have been
collected, will be so considered. 

The law requires from trustees, good faith and due diligence, the want of which
is punished by making them responsible for the losses which may be sustained by
the property entrusted to them when, therefore, a party has been guilty of a
devastavit, he is required to make up the loss out of his own estate....

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