Chap. 245.——-An ACT to amend and re-enact section 5439 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to proceedings by legatees or distributees to compel creditors
to show cause against distribution of an estate and their liability to refund
in such cases. [S B 112]

Approved March 24, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion fifty-four hundred and thirty-nine of the Code of Virginia, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 5439. 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 or the judge thereot
in vacation, after six months 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 succes-
sive 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 dis-
tributees of the whole or a part of the money and other estate not
before distributed, with or without a refunding bond, as it may pre-
scribe; 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 pro-
portion of any debts or demands appearing against the decedent, and
the costs attending their recovery.