The duties of an administrator or executor are fixed by statute. The requests and wishes of the interested parties must necessarily have no effect upon the strict line of the executor's duty. He cannot disregard the plain provisions of the law. It is his primary and ultimate duty to administer the estate according to law, and in no other way. A breach of such duty renders his sureties liable for any consequential damage.1 The appointment of an executor or administrator by the grant of letters testamentary, or letters of administration, legalizes all the acts which have been properly performed by the executor or administrator and relates back to the death of the decedent.2