since the order in which these documents lie may be of importance. 15. Obtain blank book and keep a memorandum as to everything that is done and record every important transaction or conversation therein. 512. Payments. 16. It is usual to pay witnesses to the will a small amount for their attendance upon probate, as for example, five, ten, or fifteen dollars, according to amount of estate. 17. Pay funeral expenses and expenses of probate, but make no other payments without consulting counsel, and when paying a legacy take waiver of citation of accounting proceedings, and get receipt and release. If in your opinion the bill for funeral expenses is excessive viewed from the station in life of the decedent, do not pay without consulting counsel. 18. Notify fire insurance companies of death and change of ownership of property and obtain binders, and have insurance policies held by testator transferred to estate. 19. Do not compromise a debt without leave of court. 20. Promptly reject any claim not known or reasonably believed to be valid. 21. Obtain advice of counsel before making any payment or apportionment to widow in lieu of dower. 22. Your signature to an instrument as one of two executors will bind the estate, but as to all matters wherein you act as trustee under the will the signature of your co-trustee is necessary to make the instrument valid. 513. Account and distribution.— 23. As an executor you cannot account and proceed to distribute the estate until one year from your qualification as executor has elapsed. As executor it may be generally stated that you only administer upon the personal property, and have nothing to do with the real estate so long as there is sufficient personalty to pay decedent's debts. Make no investments without consulting counsel. 514. Payment of debts.-Where an estate is unable to pay all the debts of the decedent, the following order of preference is usually observed: 1. Funeral expenses and costs of administration. 2. Expenses of the last illness. 3. Taxes. 4. Judgments and decrees of record. 5. Claims for rent, not exceeding one year. 6. Claims for servants, not exceeding one year. 7. Recognizances, bonds, sealed instruments, notes, bills, and unliquidated accounts and demands. 515. Compensation of administrators and executors. -Executors and administrators, except in Delaware, are entitled to fair compensation for their services in settling the estate. There is no fixed rule as to the amount of compensation, but this question is sometimes regulated by statute, and sometimes left to the court, or in some cases to local custom. Whatever the compensation may be, it is regarded as an expense of the administration, to be preferred as such. CHAPTER XXXI PERSONAL PROPERTY 516. Classifications and definitions.-There are two classes of personal property, real chattels, that is, leasehold interests in lands, and personal chattels, which include all other personal property. Personal chattels may be divided into choses in possession and choses in action (the word "chose" means thing). Choses in possession are corporeal personal property which may be recognized by the senses. Choses in action are incorporeal personal property and consist of legal rights, such as the right to sue and recover a debt, copyrights or trade-marks, or the right to share in the profits of a corporation or association. Choses in action may be proven by choses in possession; for example, the right to sue for and recover a debt may be shown by a bond, the right to a patent by letters patent, and the right to share in the profits of a corporation by a certificate of stock. 517. Trade-marks and trade names.-A trade-mark is a name, symbol or other device put upon goods by a dealer or manufacturer to distinguish them from like goods of other persons. A common law trade-mark arises by user, but the Federal Congress has passed statutes concerning the registration of trade-marks. By the provisions of this statute, a trade-mark placed on goods sent from one state to another or sent to a foreign country may be registered in the patent office, the registration giving the owner certain rights and remedies in addition to his common law rights. A trade name which is fanciful but not descriptive, deceptive, or previously appropriated may be adopted by a dealer or manufacturer who may obtain an exclusive property right in it by such user. EXAMPLE 401. The terms, Kid Nee Kure, Kleanwell Massage Gloves, and Cantripum Clothing have been held to be descriptive. Words indicating superiority, such as imperial, selected, etc., cannot be appropriated. The use of the word Hunyadi Water has been held not to give an exclusive right to the user for the reason that the word Hunyadi is the name of a town in Hungary from which waters with curative properties are obtained. 518. Good-will.-The term good-will has been variously defined. It consists of the good opinion of customers, and the probability that they will continue to patronize a business on account of the locality of the premises, the reputation and individualities of the proprietors, or some business connection. The sale of a business usually includes the good-will, but does not necessarily include the right to use the name of the vendor. One who sells the business, but reserves the right to use his own name may not represent his new business as being the old business, nor its successor. 519. Names.-A man may choose to live under any name he sees fit, but usually bears the surname of his father and the Christian or first name given him at birth. The law disregards all middle names and such descriptive terms as junior or senior. The statutes in most states provide for a record of names, and for a procedure by which a change of name shall be sanctioned by the courts, to the end that identity may be established. One may be prevented from using his own name if he does so for fraudulent purposes. EXAMPLE 402. Two or three persons with the aid of a nonentitive by the name of Colgate cannot form a corporation with the name of Colgate Company to sell and advertise soaps so as to lead people to believe that their product is that of the wellknown soap manufacturer. 520. Patents: definition.-A patent is a grant by the sovereign power and, in effect, is a contract between the inventor and the public whereby the former agrees to give the public the full use of his invention, after seventeen years of exclusive use by the inventor. A patent may be granted for any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of material or any new and useful improvement thereof or any new, original and ornamental design for a manufactured article. The invention or discovery or design must not have been known or used by others in this country, or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country before the invention and discovery thereof by the applicant, for more than two years prior to his application, and must not have been in public use or on sale in the United States, for more than two years prior to the application unless the article can be proved to have been abandoned. 521. Obtaining a patent.-Application is made to the commissioner of patents, and should consist of a written description of the invention or discovery, and a clear, concise statement of the manner of manipulating the object of the patent. In the case of a machine, the principle involved must be explained, and the method of applying it. The application is signed by the in |