Chap. 378.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 2636, 2637, 2639, 2640, 2642,
2645, and 2647 of the Code of Virginia, and to amend and re-enact section
2644 of said Code as amended and re-enacted by act approved February 12,
1892, entitled “an aet to amend and re-enact. section 2644 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, in regard to the marriage of a female personal representative.

Approved December 10, 1903.

1. Be it enacted: by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
twenty-six hundred and thirty-six, twenty-six hundred and thirty-seven,
twenty-six hundred and thirty-nine, twenty-six hundred and forty.
twenty-six hundred and forty-two, twenty-six hundred and forty-five, and
twenty-six hundred and forty-seven of the Code of Virginia, and section
twenty-six hundred and forty-four of said Code as amended by act ap-
proved February twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, entitled “an
act to amend and re-enact. section twenty-six hundred and forty-four of
the Code of Virginia, in regard to marriage of a female personal repre-
sentative, be amended and re-cnacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2636. What an executor may do before qualification —No person

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appointed by a will executor thereof shall have the powers of executor
until he qualifies as such by taking an oath and giving bond in the court
in which or before the clerk by whom the will or an authenicated copy
thereof is admitted to record, except that he may provide for the burial
of the testator, pay reasonable funeral expenses, and preserve the estate
from waste.

§ 2637. When and to whom administration, with the will annexed, may
be granted.—If there be no executor appointed by the will, or if all the
executors therein named refuse the executorship, or fail, when required to
give such bond, which shall amount to such refusal, the said court, or
clerk, may grant administration, with the will annexed, to the person who
would have been entitled to administration if there had been no will,
upon his taking such oath and giving such bond.

§ 2639. What clerk or court to appoint administrator of an estate; who
to be preferred.—In the case of a person dying intestate, the jurisdiction
to hear and determine the right of administration of his estate shall be
in the same court or before the same clerk who would have jurisdiction
as to the probate of his will, if there was a will. Administration shall be
granted to the distributces who apply therefor, preferring first the hus-
band or wife, and then such of the others entitled to distribution as the
court or clerk shall see fit. But any of the said distributees may at any
time waive their right to qualify in favor of any other person to be de-
signated by them. If no distributees apply for administration within
thirty days from the death of the intestate, the court or clerk may grant
administration to one or more of the creditors, or to any other person.

§$ 2640. Oath and bond of administrator; when grant to cease.—Be-
fore any grant of administration as of the estate of an intestate, the per-
son to whom it is granted shall, in the court or before the clerk granting
it, give bond and take an oath that the deceased has left no will, so far as
he knows, and that he will faithfully perform the duties of his office to
the best of his judgment. If a will of the decedent be afterwards ad-
mitted to record, or if, after administration is granted to a creditor or
other person than a distributee, any distributee who shall not have befor.
refused shall apply for administration, there may be a grant of probate or
administration, after reasonable notice to such creditor or other person, in
like manner as if the former grant had not been made; and the said
former grant shall thereupon cease.

§ 2642. When security not to be required.—Where the will directs
that an executor shal] not give security, the court or clerk shall not re-
quire it of him, unless on the application of any person interested, or
from its or his own knowledge, it or he thinks security ought to be re-
quired.

§$ 2644. On marriage of female personal representative her authority
is not extinguished.—Where an unmarried woman who is a personal rep-
resentative, either alone or jointly with another, shall marry, her hus-
band shall not be a persona! representative in her right, but the marriage
shall not operate as an extinguishment of her authoritv. Whenever such
female personal representative shall marry, the court in which or before
whose clerk she qualified shall, on the motion of any surety on her bond
as such, and may on the motion of any other person interested, ar when it
shall seem proper to such court, revoke her powers and authority, and
thereafter the other personal representative, if there be any, may proceed
in discharging the trust as if she were dead, and if there be no other ad-
ministration de bonis non (with the will annexed, if there be a will) may
be granted by the court.

§ 2645. When estate of decedent committed to sheriff or sergeant; no
bond required of officer; when court may revoke order and allow another
to qualify.—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
executor), the court, or in vacation 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 corporation or the sergeant of
the corporation, if there be no sheriff of the corporation, to
take into his possession the estate of such decendent and ad-
minister 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 decedent, with his will annexed, if there be a will, and
shall be thenceforward entitled to all the rights and bound to perform all
the duties of such administrator. The court may, however, at any time
afterwards, on reasonable notice to such sheriff or sergeant, revoke such
order made by it or its clerk, and allow any other person to qualify as
executor or administrator.

§ 2647. Appraisement of estate of decedent; to be signed and returned
to commissioner of accounts; to be recorded by clerk, and date of its re-
turn entered by cominissioner ; its effect as evidence; pay of appraisers.—
Every court or clerk by whose order any person is authorized to act as a
personal representative shall, unless where a testator directs his estate
not to be appraised, or, though he so directs, if the court or clerk deems
it proper, appoint three or more appraisers in every county or corporation
in which there may be any goods or chattels of the deceased, or in case
of a will in which there may be any real estate which the personal repre-
sentative is authorized to sell, or of which he is authorized to receive the
rents and profits. After taking an oath for the purpose, they shall ap-
praise such goods or chattels as may be produced to them, and also the
said real estate. The appraisers shall receive cach, for their attendance,
one dollar per day; the appraisement shall be signed by them and re-
turned to the commissioner of accounts of such court, who shall inspect
the same, see that it is in proper form, and within ten days after it is re-
ceived and approved by him deliver it to the clerk of such court; and the
said clerk shall record the same, with the certificate of approval. The
date of return of an appraisement shall be entered by the said commis-
sioner in his record book. Every such appraisement shall be prima facic
evidence of the value of the estate embraced therein, and that it came to
the hands of the personal representative.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.