Chap. 23.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 5374 of the Code of Virginia,
relating to the commitment of estates to sheriffs, and sergeants. [H B 10]

Approved February 26, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion fifty-three hundred and seventy-four of the Code of Virginia
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 5374. When estate of decedent committed to sheriff or
sergeant; no bond required of officer; when court may revoke order
and allow another to qualify; payment of State tax on administration.
—If at any time two months elapse without there being an executor
or administrator of the estate of a decedent (except during a contest
about the decedent’s will or during the infancy or absence of the exe-
cutor), the court, or the clerk thereof, in which or by whose clerk
the will was admitted to record, or which has jurisdiction to grant
administration on the decedent’s estate, shall, on the motion of any
person, order the sheriff of the county or city, or the sergeant ot
the city, if there be no sheriff thereof, to take into his possession the
estate of such decedent and administer the same; whereupon such
sheriff or sergeant, without taking any other oath of office or giving
any other bond or security than he may have before taken or given,
shall be the administrator, or administrator de bonis non, of the de-
scedent, with his will annexed, if there be a will, and shall be thence-
forward entitled to all the rights and bound to perform all the duties
of such administrator. The court may, however, at any time atter-
wards, on reasonable notice to such sheriff or sergeant, revoke such
order made by it or its clerk, and the court may in a proper case
after reasonable notice to parties in interest permit the sheriff or ser-
geant to resign and allow any other person to qualify as executor or
administrator. When an estate is committed to the sheriff or ser-
geant on the motion of a creditor or other person, the State tax due
for such administration shall be paid by the party upon whose motior
the estate was committed, and the same shall be repaid to him by the
sheriff or sergeant out of the first funds received by him for such
estate.