Chap. 137.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section No. 5439 of the Code of
Virginia of 1919, relating to proceedings by legatees or distributees, to com-
pel creditors to show cause against distribution of estates; their liability
to refund in such case. BS)

Approved March 7, 1922.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
fifty-four hundred and thirty-nine of the Code of Virginia of nineteen
hundred and nineteen, relating to the proceedings of legatees or dis-
tributees to compel creditors to show cause against distribution of
estate, their liability to refund in such case be amended and re-enacted
so as to read as follows:

Sec. 5439. When a report of the accounts of any personal’ rep-
resentative and of the debts and demands against his decendant’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 judge thereof
in vacation, after one year from the qualification of the personal
representative that first qualifies, 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.