The privileges of the representative are these: he may prefer one creditor to another of equal degree; he may retain a debt owing to him from the deceased as against other creditors of equal degree (see RETAINER); he may reimburse himself out of the estate all expenses incurred in the execution of his trust.
An executor _de son tort_ is one who, without any title to do so, wrongfully intermeddles with the assets of the deceased, dealing with them in such a way as to hold himself out as executor. In such a case he is subject to all the liabilities of an executor, and can claim none of the privileges. He may be treated by the creditor as the executor, and, if he is really assuming to act as executor, creditors and legatees will get a good title from him, but he is liable to be sued by the rightful representative for damages for interfering with the property of the deceased.
_Scotland._--Executor in Scots law is a more extensive term than in English. He is either nominative or dative, the latter appointed by the court and corresponding in most respects to the English administrator. Caution is required from the latter, not from the former. By the common law doctrine of passive representation the heir or executor was liable to be sued for implement of the deceased's obligations. The Roman principle of _beneficium inventarii_ was first introduced by an act of 1695. As the law at present stands, the heir or executor is liable only to the value of the succession, except where there has been vitious intromission in movables, and in _gestio pro haerede_ (behaviour as heir) and other cases in heritables. The present inventory duty on succession to movables and heritables depends on the Finance Acts 1894-1909 (see ESTATE DUTY). In England the executor is bound to pay the debts of the deceased in a certain order, but in Scotland they all rank _pari passu_ except privileged debts (see PRIVILEGE).
AUTHORITIES.--R.L. Vaughan Williams, _The Law of Executors and Administrators_; W.G. Walker, _Compendium on the Law of Executors and Administrators_; James Schouler, _Law of Executors and Administrators_ (3rd ed., Boston, 1901).
EXEDRA, or EXHEDRA (from Gr. [Greek: ex], out, and [Greek: hedra], a seat), an architectural term originally applied to a seat or recess out of doors, intended for conversation. Such recesses were generally semicircular, as in the important example built by Herodes Atticus at Olympia. In the great Roman thermae (baths) they were of large size, and like apses were covered with a hemispherical vault. An example of these exists at Pompeii in the Street of the Tombs. From Vitruvius we learn that they were often covered over, and they are described by him (v. 11) as places leading out of porticoes, where philosophers and rhetoricians could debate or harangue.