Chap. 258.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 5439 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as heretofore amended, in relation to disbursements by personal repre-
sentatives to legatees and distributees. [S B 269]

Approved March 25, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
fifty-four hundred and thirty-nine of the Code of Virginia, as hereto-
fore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 5439. When a report of the accounts of any personal rep-
resentative and of the debts and demands against his decedent’s estate
shall have been filed in the office of a court, whether under this chapter
or in a suit in chancery, the said court or the judge thereof in vaca-
tion, after six months from the qualification of such personal represen-
tative, may, on the motion of a legatee or distributee of his decedent,
make an order for the creditors of such decedent to show cause on
some day to be named in the order against the payment and delivery
of the estate of the decedent to his legatees or distributees ; a copy of
which order shall be published once a week for four successive weeks,
in one or more newspapers, as the court may direct. On or after the
day named in the order, the court in term, or the judge in vacation, may
order the payment and delivery to the legatees or distributees of the
whole or a part of the money and other estate not before distributed,
with or without a refunding bond, as it may prescribe ; but every legatee
or distributee to whom any such payment or delivery is made, and his
representatives, may, in a suit brought against him within five years
afterwards, be adjudged to refund a due proportion of any debts or
demands appearing against the decedent, and the costs attending their
recovery.

Any such personal representative, who has in good faith complied
with the provisions of this section, and has, in compliance with the
order of such court, paid and delivered the money and other estate in
his hands to whomsoever the court has adjudged entitled thereto, shall
be fully protected against the demands of creditors and all other
persons.