LEGITIME, civil law. That portion of a parent's estate of which he cannot disinherit his children, without a legal cause. The civil code of Louisiana declares that donations inter¹ vivos or mortis causa cannot exceed two-thirds of the property of the disposer if he leaves at his decease a legitimate² child; one half if he leaves two children; and one-third if he leaves three or a greater number. Under the name of children are included descendants of wbatever degree they may be; it must be understood that they are only counted for the child they represent. Civil. Code of Lo. art. 1480.

3. Donation inter vivos or mortis causa, cannot exceed two-thirds of the property if the disposer having no children have a father, mother, or both. Id. art. 1481. Where there are no descendants, and in case of the previous decease of the father and mother, donations inter vivos and mortis causa, may, in general, be made of the whole amount of the property of the disposer. Id. art. 1483. The Code Civil makes nearly similar previsions. Code Civ. L. 3, t. 2, c. 3, s. 1, art. 913 to 919.

4. In Holland, Germany, and Spain, the principles of the Falcidian law, more or less limited, have been generally adopted. Coop. Just. 616.

5. In the United States, other than Louisiana and in England, there is no restriction³ on the right of bequeathing. But this power of bequeathing did not originally extend to all a man's personal estate; on the contrary, by the common law, as it stood in the reian of Henry II, a man's goods were to be divided into three equal parts, one of which went to his heirs or lineal descendants, another to his wife, and the third was at his own disposal; or if he died without a wife, he might then dispose of one moiety⁴, and the other went to his children; and so e converso if he had no children, the wife was entitled to one moiety, and he might bequeath the other; but if he died without either wife or issue, the whole was at his own disposal. Glanv. 1. 2, c. 6;, Bract. 1. 2, c. 26. The shares of the wife and children were called their reasonable part. 2 Bl. Comm. 491-2. See Death's part; Falcidian law.

LENDER, contracts. He from whom a thing is borrowed.

2. The contract of loan confers rights, and imposes duties on the lender. 1. The lender has the right to revoke⁵ the loan at his mere⁶ pleasure; 9 Cowen, R. 687; 8 Johns. Rep. 432; 1 T. R. 480; 2 Campb. Rep. 464; and is deemed the owner or proprietor⁷ of the thing during the period of the loan; so that au action for a trespass⁸ or conversion⁹ will lie in favor of the lender against a stranger, who has obtained a wrongful possession, or has made a wrongful conversion of the thing loaned; as mere gratuitous¹⁰ permission to a third person to use a chattel¹¹ does not, in contemplation of the common law, take it out of the possession of the owner. 11 Johns. Rep. 285; 7 Cowen, Rep. 753; 9 Cowen, Rep. 687; 2 Saund. Rep. 47 b; 8 Johns. Rep. 432; 13 Johns. Rep. 141, 661; Bac. Abr. Trespass, c 2; Id. Trover, C 2. And in this the Civil agrees with the common law. Dig. 13, 6, 6, 8; Pothier, PrÇt Ö, Usage, ch. 1, §1, art. 2, n. 4; art. 3, n. 9; Ayliffe's Pand. B. 4, t. 16, p. 517; Domat, B. 1, t. 5, §1, n. 4; and so does the Scotch¹² law. Ersk. Pr. Laws of Scotl. B. 3, t. 1 §8.

3. - 2. In the civil law, the first obligation on the part of the lender, is to suffer the borrower to use and enjoy the thing loaned during the time of the loan, according to the original intention. Such is not the doctrine¹³ of the common law. 9 Cowen, Rep. 687. The lender is obliged by the civil law to reimburse¹⁴ the borrower the extraordinary expenses to which he has been put for the preservation¹⁵ of the thing lent. And in such a case, the borrower would have a lien¹⁶ on the thing, and may detain it, until these extraordinary expenses are paid, and the lender cannot, even by an abandonment of the thing to the borrower, excuse himself from re-payment, nor is he excused by the subsequent loss of the thing by accident, nor by a restitution¹⁷ of it by the borrower, without insisting upon repayment¹⁸. Pothier, PrÇt Ö Usage, ch. 3, n. 82, 83; Dig. 13, 6, 18, 4; Ersk. Pr. Laws of Scotl. B. 3, t. 1, §9. What would be decided¹⁹ at common law does not seem very clear. Story on Bailm. §274. Another case of implied obligation on the part of the lender by the civil law is, that he is bound to give notice to the borrower of the defects of the thing loaned; and if he does not and conceals²⁰ them, and any injury occurs to the borrower thereby²¹, the lender is responsible. Dig. 13, 6, 98, 3; Poth. PrÇt Ö Usage, n. 84; Domat, Liv. 1, t. 5, s. 3, n. 3. In the civil law there is also an implied obligation on the part of the lender where the thing has been lost by the borrower, and after he has paid the lender the value of it, the thing has been restored to the lender; in such case the lender must return to the borrower either the price or thing. Dig. 13, 6, 17, 5; Poth. Id. n. 85. "The common law seems to recognize the same principles, though," says Judge Story, Bailm. §276, "it would not perhaps be easy to cite a case on a gratuitous loan directly on the point." See Borrower; Commodate; Story, Bailm. ch. 4; Domat. Liv. 2, tit. 5; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1078, et seq.