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PUBLIC LAW 8 7 - 2 4 6 - S E P T. 14, 1961

Public Law 87-246 AN ACT September 14, 1961 [H. R. 7265] To amend the code of law for the District of Columbia so as to provide a new basis for determining certain marital property rights, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Marital Property Eights Amendments of 1961". SEC. 2. Section 940 of the Act entitled "An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia", approved March 3, 1901, as amended (D.C. Code, sec. 18-101), is amended to read as follows: " SEC. 940. COURSE or DESCENTS GENERALLY.—On the death of any person seized of or entitled to an interest in an estate in lands, tenements, or hereditaments in the District of Columbia, and intestate thereof, the same shall descend in fee simple to such person's surviving spouse, if any, and kindred, who according to the laws of the District of Columbia now or hereafter in force relating to the distribution of the personal property of intestates, would be entitled to the surplus personal property of such intestate, if he or she had died a resident of the District of Columbia and possessed of such surplus personalty; and such surviving spouse and kindred shall take as tenants in common in the same proportions as are or shall be fixed by such laws relating to personal property. Subject to the right of dower, such real property shall be liable, in the event of insufficiency of the personal property, for the payment of the intestate's funeral expenses, debts, costs of administration, and estate, inheritance, and succession taxes in the same manner and to the same extent as the personal property of such intestate. Should said lands, tenements, or hereditaments be sold under a decree of a court having jurisdiction over the same, then it shall be unnecessary to secure the consent of said widow or surviving husband to said sale, unless the widow elects to take her dower, if any, in all real estate whereof the husband, prior to November 29, 1957, was seized at any time during the marriage or the surviving spouse elects to take the right of dower provided by section 3 of the Act approved August 31, 1957, as amended by section 3 of the Marital Property Rights Amendments of 1961 (D.C. Code, sec. 18-201a)." SEC. 3. Section 3 of the Act approved August 31, 1957 (71 Stat. 560; Public Law 85-244; D.C. Code, sec. 18-201a), is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 3. Every husband and wife shall acquire by virtue of the marriage a right of dower which shall be an inchoate estate for life in onethird of the real property owned by the other spouse at any time during the marriage, whether by legal or equitable title, and whether held by either spouse at the time of his or her death or not, and such estate, which shall have the same incidents as the common law estate of dower in force and effect in the District of Columbia immediately prior to November 29, 1957, shall be in lieu of any inchoate rights acquired by or which may have attached to the real estate of any husband or wife by virtue of the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, as such subsection was in effect immediately prior to the effective date of this amendment, and shall not operate to the prejudice of any claim for the purchase money of such lands. No such right of dower shall attach to any lands held by any two or more persons as joint tenants while such tenancy exists; and all provisions of the Act entitled 'An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia', approved March 3, 1901, as amended, and all other laws in force in the District of Columbia relating to the right of dower and its incidents shall, on and after the effective date of this amendment, be construed to be applicable to both husband and wife."

D. C. Marital Property R i g h t s Amendments of 1961. 71 Stat. 560.

Intra.

Right of dower.

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