102 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. the satisfaction of all the persons interested in having them done, there will be no occasion for resorting to any court, and the estate will be administered out of court. If the executor fail to do his duty, or if a claim be made against the estate which the executor refuses to admit, or if the persons interested in the estate cannot agree as to their respective rights, a court must be applied to. Of course, the court must be one which has jurisdiction over the subject of the application, and the application must be made by a person who has the legal interest in the subject, i.e., by a cred- itor, a legatee, or a next of kin of the deceased. 1 If the applica- tion is to be made by a creditor, originally a court of common law could alone be applied to ; if by a legatee or next of kin, originally the proper ecclesiastical court could alone be applied to. As soon as equity assumed jurisdiction over creditors' bills, a creditor could, of course, apply to a court of common law or to a court of equity, at his option. But so long as the ecclesiastical courts could alone be resorted to by legatees and next of kin, equity could not fully administer the estate of any deceased per- son, unless it turned out to be insolvent, and so was wholly exhausted by creditors. The next step taken by equity was to assume jurisdiction over bills by legatees and next of kin, and this it did soon after its jurisdiction over creditors' bills was established. Of the reasons why this was done, little need be said in this place. 2 Suffice it to observe that, in thus extending its jurisdiction, equity relied much upon the strong arm of the Court of Chancery (coupled with the weakness and unpopularity of the ecclesiastical courts) and little upon argument. Thus, on the nth day of May, 1682, a plea to a bill by next of kin, that the jurisdiction was in the Ordinary, was overruled by Lord Chancellor Nottingham, no reason being re- ported; 3 and on the 6th of February following, in two cases, a demurrer to a similar bill met the same fate at the hands of Lord Keeper North, no other reason being given than " that 1 Sometimes, as will be seen hereafter, the executor himself may file a bill in equity; but the bill is, in that case, in the nature of a bill of interpleader. See infra, pp. 126-7. 2 Of course this is not the proper place to inquire into the jurisdiction of equity over bills by legatees and next of kin. Such bills are, however, so intimately connected with creditors' bills that it has been found impracticable to avoid speaking of them incidentally in the present article. Moreover, every administration bill, by whomsoever filed, neces- sarily results in the application of the estate, so far as is necessary, to the payment of the debts of the deceased. 8 Pamplin v. Green, 2 Ch. Cas. 95.
