Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 63 Part 1.djvu/305

 63 STAT.] 81ST CONG., IST SESS.-CH. 241-JUNE 24, 1949 [CHAPTER 241] AN ACT To amend sections 130 and 131 of the Act entitled "An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia", approved March 3, 1901, relating to the notice to be given upon a petition for probate of a will, and to the probate of such will. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first para- graph of section 130 of the Act entitled "An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia", approved March 3, 1901, as amended by the Act approved June 30, 1902 (title 19, sec. 301, D. C. Code, 1940), is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 130. NOTICE OF PETITION FOR PROBATE. -Upon the filing of a petition for probate of a will, notice, as hereinafter provided, shall be issued to all persons who would be entitled to or interested in the estate of the testator in case such will had not been executed to appear in said court on a date named in the notice, and to show cause why the prayer of the petition should not be granted. "(a) Such notice may be by a citation in which the return date named is not earlier than ten days after the filing of said petition, and which citation shall be served in the District of Columbia, by the United States marshal, or deputy marshal, not less than five days before the return day named in said citation. "(b) Such notice may be by a citation in which the return date named is not earlier than twenty days after the filing of said petition, and which citation shall be served not less than ten days before the return date named in said citation: Provided, That such citation may be served only on nonresidents of the District of Columbia, and upon residents of said District who have been returned 'Not to be found' under paragraph (a) of this section, and such service may be made only by a person not less than eighteen years of age who is not a party to or otherwise interested in the estate of the decedent, and the return in such case must be made under oath in the District of Colum- bia, unless the person making the service be a sheriff or deputy sheriff, a marshal or deputy marshal, authorized to serve process where service is made, and such return must show the time and place of service. "(c) Such notice, whenever there is proof by the petition for pro- bate or by other affidavit that any or all of such persons, interested as aforesaid, are nonresidents of the District of Columbia, or whenever they or any of them have been returned 'Not to be found' under para- graph (a) of this section, may be by a publication in which the return date named is not less than thirty days after the date of the first appearance of the publication, and which shall be published once in each of three successive weeks in some newspaper of general circu- lation in the District of Columbia, and a copy of this published notice shall be mailed to the last-known address of each of the persons, interested as aforesaid, who is not shown to have been returned served personally under either paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this sec- tion. The court may by general rule prescribe the form of such notice by publication, and may order such other publication as the case may require." SEC. 2. Section 131 of the Act entitled "An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia", approved March 3, 1901 (title 19, sec. 305, D. C. Code, 1940), is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 131. PROBATE. -When notice as prescribed in section 130 has been completed in any case, the court shall proceed, if no caveat be filed, to take the proofs, or to consider the proofs theretofore taken, of the execution of the will. All the witnesses to such will who are within 267 June 24, 1949 [S. 1127] [Public Law 124] D. C. Code, amend- ments. 31Stat.1211;32Stat. 5E6. Publication of no- tice. 31 Stat. 1211.

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