Chap. 195.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 5401, 5404, 5408 as amend-
ed, 5409, 5409-a, 5420 as amended, and 5439 as amended, of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to fiduciaries and their accounts, and the handling and distribu-
tion of fiduciary funds and of estates, and to repeal Section 5410 as amended
of the Code of Virginia providing how fiduciaries may be compelled to exhibit
their accounts. [H B 155]

Approved March 15, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That sections fifty-four hundred one, fifty-four hundred four,
fifty-four hundred eight as amended, fifty-four hundred nine, fifty-four
hundred nine-a, fifty-four hundred twenty as amended, and fifty-four
hundred thirty-nine as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended
and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 5401. Commissioners of accounts, their appointment and
duties ; “record of fiduciaries”, what to be entered therein; duty of clerks;
penalty on commissioners and clerks for failure of duty—The judge ot
each court having jurisdiction of the probate of wills and granting ad-
ministration on estates of decedents shall appoint a commissioner of
accounts, who shall be removable at pleasure and who shall have a gen-
eral supervision of all fiduciaries admitted to qualify in the court or be-
fore the clerk thereof and make all ex parte settlements of their accounts.
The clerk of the court shall furnish his commissioner of accounts at the
end of each month a list of the fiduciaries authorized to act as such un-
der orders entered during that month and examine as to each fiduciary
whether he has given such bond as the law requires, and if it appear that
he has given no bond or that his bond is defective shall report such fact
to his court forthwith. He shall enter in separate columns in a book to
be kept by him and called the “record of fiduciaries” (1) the name of
every such fiduciary; (2) the name of the decedent whose estate he rep-
resents or the name of the living person for whom he is acting in fiduciary
capacity ; (3) the penalty of his bond; (4) the names of his sureties; (5)
the date of the order conferring his authority ; (6) the date of any order
revoking his authority; (7) the date of the return of every inventory of
the estate ; (8) the date of each settlement of the accounts of the fiduciary ;
and shall index the book in the name of the decedent or person repre-
sented by the fiduciary. The clerk of the court shall certify to the com-
missioner within ten days the revocation of the authority of every such
fiduciary. Any commissioner failing to make such entry or any clerk
failing to certify such revocation for ten days after the time herein pre-
scribed shall for every such failure forfeit twenty dollars.

Section 5404. When and by whom accounts of sales returned to
them; their duty; penalty on trustees for failure—When sale is made
under any recorded deed of trust, mortgage or assignment for benefit of
creditors, otherwise than under a decree, there shall, within four months
after the sale, be returned by the trustees to the commissioner of accounts
of the court wherein the instrument was first recorded, an account of
sale. The commissioner shall state, settle and report to the court an ac-
count of the transactions of such trustee, and same shall be recorded as
other fiduciary reports. Any trustee failing to comply with this section
shall forfeit his commissions on such sales, unless these commissions are
allowed by the court. If after a deed of trust is given on land lying in a
county, and before sale thereunder, the land is taken within the limits of
the incorporated city, the returns of the trustee and settlement of his
accounts shall be before the commissioner of accounts of such city.

Section 5408. When accounts of fiduciaries exhibited before com-
missioner for settlement; lists of fiduciaries in default, and of certain
unsettled accounts, to be filed quarterly —A statement of all money and
other property which any personal representative, guardian, curator, or
committee, or any trustee acting under a trust created by any recorded
instrument except those named in section fifty-four hundred four, has
received, or become chargeable with, or has disbursed, within one year
from the date of the order conferring his authority, or from the date of
the trust or within any succeeding year, together with the vouchers for
the disbursements, and a statement of cash on hand or in bank and all
investments held at the terminal date of the account, shall, within four
months after the end of every such year, be exhibited by him before the
commissioner of accounts of the court wherein the order conferring his
authority was made, or of the court wherein the instrument creating the
trust was first recorded; and the commissioner shall state, settle and re-
port to the court an account of the transactions of such fiduciary, as pro-
vided by law. Every such fiduciary shall also, at the request of the com-
missioner to whom he is required to exhibit the foregoing statements,
exhibit to the commissioner the securities held by him together with a
statement of every bank in which cash is held at the terminal date of the
account. If any such fiduciary fail to make any such exhibit, as herein re-
quired, the commissioner and the court shall proceed against him in like
manner, and the court shall impose the same penalty, unless such fi-
duciary is excused for sufficient reason, as is herein provided in cases in
which fiduciaries fail to return inventories of their respective estates.
Every commissioner shall file with his court or judge, and a duplicate
in the clerk’s office, in the months of April and October, a list of all
fiduciaries required to make periodic settlements who have failed to make
such settlements as required, and, at the same times, with like duplicate
with the clerk, a report of all fiduciary accounts which have been before
him for more than three months and which remain unsettled. Upon the
filing of this list the clerk shall issue a summons against each fiduciary
shown thereon returnable to the first day of the next term of court and
the court shall take action against such fiduciary in accordance with Code
section fifty-four hundred three for failure to file inventories. For the
purpose of making up the first list to be filed hereunder the commissioner
need not include the name of any fiduciary who qualified more than two
years prior to the effective date of this act unless the name of such fi-
duciary, or the estate for which he acts, is shown by the tax records in the
office of the commissioner of the revenue of the county or city for which
the commissioner is acting is for one or both of the years nineteen hun-
dred forty-four or nineteen hundred forty-five. The commissioner shall
enter in his record book, in a separate column, the date of each settle-
ment of fiduciary accounts made by him.

Section 5409. When fiduciaries to forfeit their commission, etc.—
If any such fiduciary wholly fail to lay before such commissioner a state-
ment of all matters required in section fifty-four hundred eight together
with all other statements and items therein required for any year, within
four months after its expiration, and though a statement be laid before
the commissioner, yet if the fiduciary be found chargeable for that year
with any money or other property, not embraced in the statement, he
shall have no compensation for his services during such year, nor com-
mission on such money or other property, unless allowed by the com-
missioner for good cause shown; the commissioner’s action in such case
shall be subject to review by the court on exceptions by any interested
person. This section shall not apply to a case in which a fiduciary has
laid a statement of his accounts within such year before a commissioner
in chancery who in a pending suit has been ordered to settle his account.

Section 5409-a. Exhibition of accounts when sum does not exceed
certain amount.—If the principal sum held by any fiduciary mentioned
in section fifty-four hundred eight does not exceed twenty-five hundred
dollars, such fiduciary shall exhibit his accounts before the commissioner
within four months after the expiration of one year from the date of the
order conferring his authority as provided in section fifty-four hundred
eight, but thereafter the commissioner of accounts may permit the fidu-
ciary to exhibit his accounts every three years, which permission may be
revoked by the commissioner on his own motion or upon request of any
interested person. The provisions of this section shall apply to any case
in which the corpus of the estate in the hands of the fiduciary has been
reduced to twenty-five hundred dollars or less although it formerly ex-
ceeded that amount. Any fiduciary exhibiting his accounts in accordance
with the provisions of this section shall be entitled to compensation for
his services.

Section 5420. Proceedings for receiving proof of debts by commis-
sioners.—Any commissioner who has for settlement the accounts of a
personal representative of a decedent shall, when requested so to do by
such representative, or any creditor, legatee, or distributee of the de-
cedent, appoint a time and place for receiving proof of debts and de-
mands against the decedent or his estate, and he shall publish notice
thereof once a week for two successive weeks in some newspaper of gen-
eral circulation in the county or city wherein the fiduciary qualified, the
frst publication of which shall be at least twenty days before the date
set for the hearing; and at least twenty days before the date fixed for
the hearing he shall also post a notice of the time and place at the front
door of the courthouse of the court of the county or city wherein the
fiduciary qualified.

Section 5439. Proceedings to compel creditors and others inter-
ested in the estate of a decedent to show cause against distribution of
estate to legatees or distributees; their liability to refund under certain
circumstances.—When a report of the accounts of any personal repre-
sentative and of the debts and demands against his decedent’s estate has
been filed in the office of a court, whether under sections fifty-four hun-
dred twenty and fifty-four hundred twenty-one or in a suit in chancery,
the court or the judge in vacation, after six months from the qualification
of the personal representative, may, on motion of the personal representa-
tive or on motion of a legatee or distributee of his decedent, make an
order for the creditors and all other persons interested in the estate of
the 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 the order shall be published once a week for four
successive weeks, in one or more newspapers, as the court directs. 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 distribu-
tees of the whole or a part of the money and other estate not before dis-
tributed, with or without a refunding bond, as it prescribes; 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
afterward, be adjudged to refund a due proportion of any claims en-
forcible against the decedent or his estate, 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 the court, paid and delivered the money or 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.

2. That section fifty-four hundred ten, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, is repealed.