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PUBLIC LAW 85-244-AUG. 31, 1957

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SEC. 8. Section 1154 of the Act entitled "An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia*', approved March 3, 1901 (D. C. Code, sec. 30-201), is amended to read as follows: "§ 1154. Married women—Power to dispose of separate property. "Subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of section 3 of this Act, married women shall hold all their property of every description, for their separate use as fully as if they were unmarried, and shall have power to dispose of the same by deed, mortgage, lease, will, gift, or otherwise, as fully as husbands have the power to dispose of their property, and no more; except that no disposition of her real or personal property, or any portion thereof, by deed, mortgage, bill of sale, or other conveyance, shall be valid if made by a married woman under twenty-one years of age." SEC. 9. (a) Section 386 of the Act entitled "An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia", approved March 3, 1901 (D. C. Code, sec. 18-714), is amended to read as follows: C h i l d t e n °* "SEC. 386. No right in the inheritance to real or personal property intestate, etc. shall accrue to or vest in any person other than the children of the intestate and their descendants, unless such person is in being and capable in law to take as heir or distributee at the time of the intestate's death; but any child or descendant of the intestate born after the death of the intestate shall have the same right of inheritance as if born before his death." (b) Section 386a of such Act (D. C. Code, sec. 18-715) is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 386a. I n no case shall there be any distinction between the kindred of the whole and the half-blood." (c) Section 387 of such Act (D. C. Code, sec. 18-716) is amended to read as follows: I 1 legitimate "SEC. 387. The illegitimate child or children of any female and the children. issue of any such illegitimate child or children shall be capable to take real and personal estate by inheritance from their mother, or from each other, or from the descendants of each other, as the case may be, in like manner as if born in lawful wedlock. "When such illegitimate child or children shall die leaving no descendants, or brothers or sisters, or the descendants of such brothers or sisters, then and in that case the mother of such illegitimate child or children shall be entitled to the real and personal estate of such illegitimate child or children, and if the mother be dead, the heirs or distributees of the mother shall take in like manner as if such illegitimate child or children had been born in lawful wedlock." (d) Section 388 of such Act (D. C. Code, sec. 18-717) is amended to read as follows: Escheatment. "SEC. 388. If there be no widow or widower or relations of the intestate within the fifth degree, which shall be reckoned by counting down from the common ancestor to the more remote, the surplus of real and personal property shall escheat to the District of Columbia to be used by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the benefit of the poor." SEC. 10. Any provision of law inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, is hereby repealed. Effective date. QEC. 11. Thls Act shall bccome effective ninety days after the date of its enactment. Approved August 31, 1957.

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