Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
UNIVERSITAS, n. Sc. Law: the whole property, of every kind, of a deceased person. A Civil Law term.Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute iii. ix. § 6:
Where a settlement is made by the deceased of the whole or the universitas of his moveable estate, the person gratified is called universal legatee.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 467:
Things, in their nature heritable, may become moveable by being made part of a moveable universitas.Sc. 1888 Session Cases (Lords) XV. 36:
The legacies are to be paid out of the universitas of the testator's estate.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 199:
Not a particular portion of the debtor's effects, but the universitas of his estate.
