legal representative

Section 2(11) CPC defines a legal representative as a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person, including a person who intermeddles with the estate and, where a party sues or is sued in a representative character, the person on whom the estate devolves on the party’s death. It is wider than “legal heir”: an executor, an administrator or a person in possession of the estate may be a legal representative without being an heir.

When a party dies during a suit and the right to sue survives, the legal representatives must be brought on record under Order XXII CPC within the limitation period, failing which the suit abates. A legal representative is liable on a decree only to the extent of the estate that comes into his hands.

Example

On the plaintiff’s death, his widow and sons were impleaded as legal representatives under Order XXII Rule 3.

In Indian law

• Sections 2(11) and 50, and Order XXII, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

See also

abatement · executor · succession · actio personalis moritur cum persona

Read more in the study notes

• Arbitration agreement and its drafting (Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems)
• Holder and holder in due course, parties to instruments, their liability and payment in due course (Banking Law)
• Negotiation, endorsement, assignment and presentment (Banking Law)
• Definitions, classification of offences, and the courts, prosecution and police under the BNSS (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Compounding of offences and plea bargaining (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Execution, suspension, remission and commutation of sentences; mercy petitions (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)