[ Act No. 290, November 01, 1901 ]
AN ACT PROVIDING AN INEXPENSIVE METHOD OF ADMINISTRATION UPON THE ESTATES OF CIVIL EMPLOYEES OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT WHO ARE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AND WHO DIE IN THE SERVICE OF THE INSULAR GOVERNMENT, LEAVING SMALL ESTATES UPON WHICH NO REGULAR ADMINISTRATION IS DEEMED ADVISABLE.
By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine Commission, that:
Section 1. Whenever any civilian employee who is a citizen of the United States in the service of the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, or any brunch thereof, shall die in that service leaving estate in the Philippine Islands, no part of which is real estate, and the entire assets belonging to said estate shall be personal and shall not exceed in value the sum of five hundred dollars, and no regular administration in accordance with the provisions of law provided in the Code of Procedure in civil actions and special proceedings in the Philippine Islands shall have been had, the Treasurer of the Philippine Archipelago is authorized, and it is hereby made his duty, to take possession of the estate of such deceased person and to make a complete inventory thereof, and to file the same with the Auditor of the Philippine Archipelago. Upon taking possession of such estate, the Treasurer shall ascertain by the best means within his power the names and residences of the persons who are lawfully entitled to the same and shall transmit the same to the persons whom he shall adjudge to be lawfully entitled thereto upon receiving proper vouchers for the same. Before transmitting such estate to its lawful owners the Treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to pay therefrom the burial expenses of such deceased person and all expenses by the Treasurer necessarily incurred in securing possession of the estate, in ascertaining the true owners thereof, and in transmitting the same to the true owners, and in payment of such debts as he shall adjudicate are justly due from the deceased at the time of his death. The accounts of the Treasurer in the performance of this duty shall be audited like his other accounts, and for the moneys and property received by him in performance of the duties by this Act prescribed his official bond shall be held as security. If the Treasurer shall find it to be for the interest of the parties entitled to the estate to convert any portion thereof which is not in the form of cash into cash by sale, he is hereby authorized to make such sale by auction or otherwise as he shall determine to be most advantageous to the estate.
Section 2. In case the Treasurer shall have performed his duties in accordance with section one of this Act and shall have paid over the sum due from the funds of said estate to the persons whom he has adjudged to be entitled thereto, such settlement of the estate shall be deemed a lawful settlement thereof, and the Treasurer shall not be accountable to any other person for the estate so administered by him.
Section 3. This Act shall apply to the estates of persons of the class named in section one who have died before the passage of this Act, as well as to those who shall die hereafter.
Section 4. Nothing in this Act contained shall prohibit the lawful heirs of any person, whose estate has been settled in accordance with the provisions of this Act, from bringing suit in any court having jurisdiction of the subject-matter and of the parties against the persons who have received the estate by virtue of the provisions of this Act and from recovering the same from such persons upon proof that the estate has been delivered to persons not entitled to the same.
Section 5. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.1aшphi1
Section 6. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, November 1, 1901.
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