H. B. 2194
(By Delegates Trump, Cann, Manuel, Stalnaker and
Willison)
[Introduced January 13, 1999; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section eleven, article one, chapter
forty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating generally to the
appointment of a sheriff as the administrator of an estate.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article one, chapter forty-four of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES.
§44-1-11. When sheriff to administer estate.
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 clerk before whom the
will was admitted to probate, or having jurisdiction to grant
administration, shall on motion of any person order the sheriff
of the county to take into his or her possession the estate of
such decedent and administer the same; whereupon such sheriff,
without taking any other oath of office, or giving any other bond
or security than he or she may have before taken or given, shall
be the administrator or administrator de bonis non of the
decedent, with his or her 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 the administrator. For his or her
services as administrator of an estate, the sheriff shall receive
from the estate a fee of five percent of the estate subject to
administration, which fee shall be deposited to the treasury of
the county. Every such sheriff shall, in the month of January in
each year, make a written report to the county court commission
of his or her county, and if the court is not in session, then he
or she shall file such the report with the clerk of such the
court, of the receipts and disbursements of each estate so
committed to him or her, and at the end of his or her term of
office make a complete report and settlement of each estate so
committed to him or her, and shall turn over to his or her
successor in office all moneys or property in his or her hands remaining unadministered. Such The court or clerk may, however,
at any time afterward revoke such order and allow any other
person to qualify as such the executor or administrator; and the
court, or the clerk thereof, shall, at the expiration of the term
of office of any such sheriff, commit to his or her successor in
office any and all estates which may appear, by the final report
above required to be made by the sheriff at the end of his or her
term, not to have been fully administered. Every sheriff to whom
any estate shall have been committed, as aforesaid, who shall
fail to render any report as required herein, or who shall fail
to make such settlement within two months after the end of his
or her term of office shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more
than five hundred dollars.
NOTE:
The purpose of this bill is to clarify that a sheriff
acting as the administrator of the estate of a decedent is
permitted by law to charge a normal fiduciary's fee, which shall
be paid to the county treasury.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.