Chap. 161.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2708 of the Code of Virginia
of 1887, in relation to proceedings by legatees or distributees to compel creditors
to show cause against distribution of estate, their liability to refund in such
case.

Approved March 14, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-seven hundred and eight of the Code of eighteen hundred and
eighty-seven be amended and re-enacted as follows:

§ 2708. When a report of the accounts of any personal representative
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, after one year from the qualification of such
personal representative, 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 de-
mands appearing against the decedent, and the costs attending their
recovery.

2. And whereas, an emergency exists for the immediate change of the
existing law by reason of the change in judicial system, this act shall be
in force from its passage.