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fruits and pay the interest of all, monies of which he may have possessed himself.

ART. 1623. The delivery of legacies under a particular title must be demanded of the testamentary executor, who has the seisin of the succession. If the testamentary executor has not the seisin, or if his functions have expired, the legatees must apply to the heirs.

ART. 1624.-The interest or proceeds of the thing bequeathed shall accrue to the benefit of the legatee, from the day of the decease, without his having brought suit for the same:

1. When the testator has expressly declared in his will to that effect;

2. When an annuity or pension has been bequeathed by way of maintenance.

ART. 1625.-The costs of suing for delivery shall be at the charge of the succession,unless the testator has directed otherwise, and provided also that those costs shall cause no deduction of the legitime reserved to the forced heirs.

ART. 1626.-The heirs of the testator, or the debtors of a legacy, shall be personally bound to discharge it, each in proportion to the part that falls to him in the

succession.

They shall be bound by mortgage for the whole, to the amount of the value of the immoveable property of the succession withheld by them.

ART. 1627.-Particular legacies must be discharged in preference to all others, even though they exhaust the whole succession, or all that remains after the payment of the debts and the contributions for the legitimate portion, in case there are forced heirs.

ART. 1628.-If the effects do not suffice to discharge the particular legacies, the legacies of a certain object must be first taken out. The surplus of the effects must then be proportionally divided among the legatees of sums of money, unless the testator has expressly declared

that such a legacy shall be paid in preference to the rest, or that the legacy is given as a recompense for services.

ART. 1629.-The legacy bequeathed shall be delivered with every thing that appertains to it, in the condition in which it was on the day of the donor's decease.

ART. 1630.-When a person, who has bequeathed the property of an immoveable, has afterwards augmented it by new purchases, the property so purchased, though it be contiguous, shall not, without a new disposition, be considered as making part of the legacy.

It is otherwise as to improvements or new buildings raised on the ground bequeathed, or an inclosure of which the testator has enlarged the area.

ART. 1631.-If prior to the testament or subsequently, the thing has been mortgaged by the testator for his own debt or for that of another, or if it be burthened with an usufruct, he who is to pay the legacy is not bound to discharge the thing bequeathed of the incumbrance, unless he be required to do it by an express disposition of

the testator.

ART. 1632.-When the testator has bequeathed a thing belonging to another person, the legacy shall be null, whether the testator knew or knew not that the thing did not belong to him.

ART. 1633. When the legacy is of an indeterminate thing, the heir is not obliged to give it of the best quality, nor can he offer it of the worst.

ART. 1634.-A legacy made to a creditor shall not be deemed to be in compensation of the debt, nor a legacy made to a servant in compensation of his wages.

ART. 1635.-The legatee by a particular title shall not be liable to the debts of the succession, except the reduction of the legacies as is before provided, and except the action of mortgage of the creditors.

ART. 1636.-The legacy of a certain object is extinguished by the loss of the object; but if the object is

only destroyed in part, as if a house bequeathed has been destroyed by fire, the legacy subsists for what remains, that is, for the land on which it was situated.

SECTION V.

Of the Opening and the Proof of Testaments, and of Testamentary Executors.

ART. 1637.-No testament can have effect, unless it has been presented to the judge of the parish in which the testator died, if he died within the State, or in which his principal estates lie, if he died out of the State; the judge shall order the execution of the testament after its being opened and proved, in the cases prescribed by law.

ART. 1638.-The execution of a testament shall not be ordered, until the decease of the testator has been sufficiently proved to the judge to whom the testament is presented.

ART. 1639.-When the decease of the testator has been sufficiently proved to the judge, to whom the testament is presented, he shall immediately proceed to open it, if it be sealed, and to the proof of it in presence of the notary and the witnesses who were present at the making of it, and who are on the spot, or duly called.

ART. 1640.-Nuncupative testaments, received by public acts, do not require to be proved, that their execution may be ordered; they are full proof of themselves, unless they are alleged to be forged.

ART. 1641.-Nuncupative testaments under private signature, cannot be executed, until they have been proved by the declaration on oath of at least three of the witnesses, who were present when they were made.

ART. 1642.-The declaration of the witnesses required for such proof must state in substance, not only that they recognize the testament presented to them as being the

same that was written in their presence by the testator himself or by another person by his direction, or which the testator had written or caused to be written out of their presence, and which he declared to them contained his last will, as the case may be; but also that they recognize their signatures and that of the testator at the foot of the testament, if they have signed it, or the signature of him who signed for them respectively, in case of their not having signed for want of knowing how.

ART. 1643.-The execution of mystic testaments cannot be ordered, until they have been in like manner proved by the declaration on oath, of at least four of the witnesses, who were present at the act of superscription.

ART. 1644.-The declaration of the witnesses required for the proof of mystic testaments, must state in substance, that they recognize the sealed packet presented to them to be the same that the testator delivered to the notary in their presence, declaring to him that it contained his testament; and also that they recognize their signatures and that of the notary at the foot of the act of superscription, if they have signed it, or the signature of him who signed for them respectively, if, not knowing how to write, they did not themselves sign the act of superscription.

ART. 1645.-When the notary, who has passed the act of superscription, is one of the witnesses appearing, his declaration on oath, with that of two witnesses only, is sufficient proof of a testament.

ART. 1646.-If any of the witnesses, who were present at the making of the nuncupative testament under private signature, or at the act of superscription of the mystic testament, be dead or absent, so that it be not possible to procure the number of witnesses prescribed by law for proving the testament, it will be sufficient to prove it by the declaration of the witnesses living, who are in the State.

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ART. 1647.—If none of the persons, who were present at such acts, are living in the State, but all are absent or deceased, it will be sufficient for the proof of the testament if two credible persons make a declaration on oath that they recognize the signatures of the different persons, who have signed the will or the act of superscription.

ART. 1648. The olographic testament shall be opened, if it be sealed; and it must be acknowledged and proved by the declaration of two credible persons, who must attest that they recognize the testament as being entirely written, dated and signed in the testator's hand writing, as having often seen him write and sign during his lifetime.

ART. 1649.-When a nuncupative testament has been put under an envelope, or sealed, merely through precaution on the part of the testator, without any act of superscription or any indication of the names of the witnesses who have signed the testament, the judge shall open it in presence of the party requiring it, and of two witnesses called in for that purpose.

ART. 1650.-When the judge has complied with all the formalities required for opening and proving a testament, he shall order its execution, and he shall moreover direct that such testaments as have not been passed by public act, be filed, after having inscribed on them his paraph ne varietur, at the top and bottom of each page.

ART. 1651.-The execution of the dispositions, contained in testaments, is usually confided by the testator to one or more testamentary executors.

ART. 1652.-The testator may give his testamentary executor the seisin of the whole of his succession, or only of a certain determinate portion, according as he has expressed himself, saving the restrictions contained in the following articles.

But this seisin cannot continue beyond a year and a

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