Short answer. Article 950 sets a queue of six. Remuneratory legacies come first, then those the testator declared preferential, then legacies for support, then for education, then gifts of a specific thing forming part of the estate, and everything else is paid pro rata out of what is left.
What the law says
If the estate should not be sufficient to cover all the legacies or devises, their payment shall be made in the following order: (1) Remuneratory legacies or devises; (2) Legacies or devises declared by the testator to be preferential; (3) Legacies for support; (4) Legacies for education; (5) Legacies or devises of a specific, determinate thing which forms a part of the estate; (6) All others pro rata.
Civil Code, Article 950 — Order of Payment When the Estate Falls Short. Read the full provision →
A queue, not a proportional cut
The order is strict and each class is paid in full before the next is reached. A shortfall therefore does not spread itself evenly across the beneficiaries; it lands on whoever is at the back. Only within the last class does everyone share the loss pro rata. This surprises legatees who assume a lean estate means everybody receives a little less. In a badly overstretched estate, the first two or three classes take what there is and the ordinary money legacies at the end of the queue receive nothing at all.
What the earlier classes are
A remuneratory legacy is one given for services the testator received — a way of paying a debt of gratitude rather than making a pure gift — and it heads the list for that reason. A preferential legacy is one the testator himself declared should be paid ahead of the others, so the ranking honours his express choice. Legacies for support and for education follow, both aimed at somebody's ongoing need rather than his enrichment. Then come gifts of a specific determinate thing already in the estate, which are ranked above general legacies of money.
The legitimes come before any of this
This article divides what remains after the compulsory heirs have been provided for; it is not a competition between legatees and the family. The legitime is the portion the testator had no power to give away, and dispositions that impair it are reduced on the compulsory heir's petition. So the sequence is: fix the legitimes, see what free portion survives, and only then rank the legacies against that figure. A legatee at the top of Article 950's queue is first in line for the free portion, not for the estate.
Classify each gift before arguing about it
Every dispute under this article is really a dispute about which class a gift belongs to, so go through the will clause by clause and label them. Look for language recognising services rendered, for any declaration of preference, and for gifts framed as support or schooling rather than as outright transfers. Set that against a current inventory and valuation of the estate and the debts it must first pay. Once the classification is settled and the figures are honest, the distribution follows the list mechanically.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 950 — Order of Payment When the Estate Falls Short
- Civil Code, Article 911 — Order Of Reduction
- Civil Code, Article 907 — Reduction Of Inofficious Dispositions