SB702 HJUD AM 3-5

            The Committee on the Judiciary moved to amend the Bill on page one, immediately following the enacting section, by striking out the remainder of the bill and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

That §44-1-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

Article 8. Real estate of decedents.

§44-8-1. Sale, conveyance and management of decedent’s real estate; powers of executor and administrator with will annexed.

Real estate devised to be sold shall, if no person other than the executor be appointed for the purpose, be sold and conveyed by the executor and the proceeds of sale, or the rents and profits of any real estate which the executor is authorized by the will to receive, shall be received by the executor who qualifies, or by his or her successor. If none qualify, or the one qualifying shall die, resign or be removed before the trust is executed or completed, the administrator with the will annexed shall sell or convey the lands so devised to be sold, and receive the proceeds of sale, or the rents and profits aforesaid, as an executor might have done: Provided, That if the executor has not, within five years of the closing of the estate of the testator, sold any real estate which was devised to be sold, title thereto shall pass to the individuals entitled to receive the proceeds thereof, in such proportions as they are entitled to receive said proceeds, in the absence of any contrary testamentary intent.

When any will heretofore or hereafter executed gives to the executor named therein the power to sell the testator’s real estate, which has not been theretofore specifically devised therein, the executor may sell any such real estate unless otherwise provided in said will. If such will directs the sale of testator’s real estate but names no executor, or names an executor and the executor dies, resigns or becomes incapable of acting, and an administrator with the will annexed is appointed, the administrator with the will annexed may sell such real estate as aforesaid.

Nothing in this section shall be deemed or construed so as to invalidate any conveyance made prior to the effective date of the amendments thereto adopted by the Legislature at its regular session held in the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-seven 1987.