DISPOSITION OF PROPERTY BY WILL

“Section 1. – Every person of twenty-one years of age and upwards, of sound mind, may by last will devise all his or her property, real or personal, saving in the case of a married man to the widow her dower, and saving in the case of a married woman any rights which her husband may have as tenant by curtesy.
“Section 2. – Every will shall be in writing, signed by the testator, or by some other person under his direction, in his presence, and shall be attested by two or more competent witnesses, subscribing their names to the will in the presence of the testator, at the request of the testator and in the presence of each other.
“Section 3. – If, after making a will disposing of the whole estate of the testator, such testator shall marry and die, leaving issue by such marriage living at the time of his death, or shall leave issue of such marriage born to him after his death, such will shall be deemed revoked unless provision shall have been made for such issue by some settlement, or unless such issue shall be provided for in the will, and no evidence shall be received to rebut the presumption of such revocation.
“Section 4. – A will made by an unmarried person shall be deemed revoked by his or her subsequent marriage.
“Section 5. – A bond, covenant, or agreement made for a valuable consideration by a testator, to convey any property devised or bequeathed in any last will previously made, shall not be deemed a revocation of such previous devise or bequest, but such property shall pass by the devise or bequest, subject to the same remedies on such bond, covenant, or agreement, for the specific performance or otherwise, against devisees or legatees, as might be had by law against the heirs of the testator, or his next of kin, if the same had descended to them.
“Section 6. – A charge or incumbrance upon any real or personal estate for the purpose of securing the payment of money or the performance of any covenant or agreement shall not be deemed a revocation of any will relating to the same estate previously executed. The devises and legacies therein contained shall pass and take effect subject to such charge or incumbrance.
“Section 7. – If any person make his last will and die, leaving a child or children, or descendants of such child or children, in case of their death, not named or provided for in such will, although born after the making of such will or the death of the testator, every such testator, so far as shall regard such child or children, or their descendants not provided for, shall be deemed to die intestate and such child or children, or their descendants, shall be entitled to such proportion of the estate of the testator, real and personal, as if he had died intestate, and the same shall be assigned to them; and all the other heirs, devisees, and legatees shall refund their proportional part.
“Section 8. – [There was no section 8 in Title II, ch. 10, of the 1921 Codes].
“Section 9. – If such child or children, or their descendants, shall have an equal proportion of the testator’s estate bestowed on them in the testator’s lifetime by way of advancement, they shall take nothing by virtue of the provisions of the preceding section.
“Section 10. – When any estate shall be devised to any child or grandchild, or other relative of the testator, and such devisee shall die before the testator, leaving lineal descendants such descendants shall take the estate, real and personal as such devisee would have done in case he had survived the testator.
“Section 11. – If after making any will the testator shall duly make and execute a second will, the destruction, cancelling, or revocation of such second will shall not revive the first will, unless it appear by the terms of such revocation that it was his intention to revive and give effect to the first will, or unless he shall duly republish his first will.
“Section 12. – Any mariner at sea, or soldier in the military service, may dispose of his wages or other personal property as he might have done by common law, or by reducing the same to writing.
“Section 13. – No proof shall be received of any nuncupative will unless it be offered within six months after speaking the testamentary words, nor unless the words, or the substance thereof, were reduced to writing within ten days after they were spoken.
“Section 14. – No probate of any nuncupative will shall be granted for fourteen days after the death of the testator, nor shall any nuncupative will be at any time proved unless the testamentary words, or the substance thereof, be first committed to writing, and a citation issued, accompanied with a copy thereof, to call the widow or next of kin of the deceased that they may contest the will if they think proper.
“Section 15. – Any person not an inhabitant of, but owning property, real or personal, in the Virgin Islands may devise or bequeath such property by last will executed according to the laws in force in the islands or the state or territory or foreign country in which the will may be executed and if such will be probated in any State, Territory, or other district or possession of the United States, or in any foreign country or state, copies of such will and of the probate thereof, certified by the clerk of the court in which such will was probated, with the seal of the court affixed thereto, if there be a seal together with a certificate of the Chief Judge or presiding magistrate, that the certificate is in due form and made by the clerk or other person having the legal custody of the record, shall be recorded in the same manner as wills executed and proved in the island, and shall be admitted in evidence in the same manner and with like effect.
“Section 16. – Any such will may be contested and annulled within the same time and in the same manner as wills executed and proved in the Virgin Islands.
“Section 17. – If any person has attested or shall attest the execution of any will to whom any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment of or affecting real or personal estate other than or except charges in lands, tenements, or hereditaments for the payment of any debt or debts shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, gift or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will or any person claiming under him, be void, and such person shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will.
“Section 18. – If any such witness would be entitled to any share in the testator’s estate in case the will should not be established, then so much of the estate as would have descended or would have been distributed to such witness shall be saved to him as will not exceed the value of the devise or bequest made to him in the will; and he may recover the same from the devisees or legatees named in the will in proportion to and out of the parts devised and bequeathed to him.
“Section 19. – If the execution of such will be attested by a sufficient number of other competent witnesses, as required by the code, then such devise, legacy, interest, estate, gift, or appointment shall be valid.
“Section 20. – If by any will any real estate be charged with any debt, and any creditor whose debt is so charged has attested the execution of such, every such creditor shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will.
“Section 21. – If any person has attested or shall attest the execution of any will to whom any legacy or bequest is thereby given, and such person, before giving testimony concerning the execution of such will, shall have released such bequest or legacy and renounced without valuable consideration all benefits under said will, such person shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will.
“Section 22. – If any legatee or devisee who has attested or shall attest the execution of any will shall have died or die in the lifetime of the testator, or before he shall have received or released the legacy or bequest so given to him, and before he shall have refused to receive such legacy or bequest on a tender made thereof such legatee or devisee shall be deemed a legal witness to the execution of such will.
“Section 23. – No person to whom any estate, gift, or appointment shall be given or made which is hereby declared to be null and void, or who shall have refused to receive such legacy or bequest or tender made, and who shall have been examined as a witness concerning the execution of such will, shall, after he shall have been so examined, demand or receive, except as provided in section three of chapter seventeen hereinafter any profit or benefit of or from such estate, interest, gift, or appointment, so given or made to him by such will, or demand, receive, or accept from any person any such legacy or bequest, or any satisfaction or compensation for the same.
“Section 24. – [Provisions of this section were carried into Title 28 of this Code.]
“Section 25. – A devise of real property shall be deemed and taken as a devise of all the estate or interest of the testator therein subject to his disposal, unless it clearly appears from the will that he intended to devise a less estate or interest; and any estate or interest in real property acquired by anyone after the making of his or her will shall pass therefrom that such was not the intention of the testator; nor shall any conveyance or disposition of real property by anyone after the making of his or her will prevent or affect the operation of such will upon any estate or interest therein subject to the disposal of the testator at his or her death.
“Section 26. – When any testator in his last will shall give any chattel or real estate to any person, and the same shall be taken in execution for the payment of the testator’s debts, then all the other legatees, devisees, and heirs shall refund their proportional part of such loss to such person from whom the bequest shall be taken.
“Section 27. – The term ‘will’, as used in this chapter, shall be so construed as to include all codicils as well as wills.
“Section 28. – All courts and others concerned in the execution of last wills shall have due regard to the directions of the will and the true intent and meaning of the testator in all matters brought before them.
“Section 29. – [Provisions of this section were carried into Title 28 of this Code].
“Section 30. – A last will and testament, except when made by a soldier in actual military service or by a mariner at sea, is invalid unless it be in writing and executed with such formalities as are required by law.
“Section 31. – A written will can not be revoked or altered otherwise than by another written will, or other writing of the testator, declaring such revocation or alteration, and executed with the same formalities required by law for the will itself; or unless the will be burnt, torn, cancelled, obliterated, or destroyed with the intent and for the purpose of revoking the same by the testator himself, or by another person in his presence, by his direction and consent and when so done by another person the direction and consent of the testator, and the fact of such injury or destruction shall be proved by at least two witnesses.”

§ 191. Petition for settlement without administration

Statute text
Whenever a person dies intestate, leaving no debts, or such debts as his heirs choose to assume and pay, the heirs may present to the court a petition duly verified by two witnesses, which shall state -
(1) the name and residence of the deceased;
(2) the date of his death, supported by death certificate when available and procurable;
(3) the names and capacities of the heirs;
(4) that there are no debts, or that the heirs choose to assume and pay such debts as there may be;
(5) that they accept the estate purely, simply and unconditionally, making the petitioners and the property of decedent responsible for any debts that may be owing by the decedent; and
(6) the proportion due each heir.
The petition shall end with a prayer that the heirs be recognized as the legal heirs of the deceased and as such be placed in full possession of the decedent’s estate, real and personal.

Annotations

HISTORY

§ 192. Inventory to be annexed to petition

Statute text
An inventory of all property left by the deceased shall be annexed to the petition referred to in section 191 of this title.  The inventory shall state the true and fair value of the property at the time of the decedent’s death, shall be sworn to by two responsible persons, and shall be the basis for the computation of the inheritance tax to be paid by the estate.

§ 193. Presentation of petition to United States attorney

Statute text
Before presentation of the petition referred to in section 191 of this title to the court for consideration it shall be submitted to the United States attorney who, if satisfied as to the correctness of the valuation as shown by the inventory and sworn to, shall approve the petition in the margin thereof and certify the amount of inheritance tax to be paid to the Territory.  If the United States attorney refuses to approve the petition, the petitioners may present it to the court and cause a rule to issue on the United States attorney ordering him to show cause why the inheritance tax should not be fixed and the petition approved.

Annotations

§ 194. Deposit and payment of tax

Statute text
After publication of notice to creditors once a week for four weeks and upon the approval, by the United States attorney or by judgment on rule, of the petition referred to in section 191 of this title, the amount of the inheritance tax shall be deposited with the clerk of the court and not until then shall the petition be considered by the court and judgment pronounced thereon.
After judgment has been rendered by the court, the clerk of the court shall pay the inheritance tax to the proper fiscal officer for the account of the Territory and file the receipt therefor with the petition and judgment.

§ 195. Judgment prima facie proof of title

Statute text
In the judgment recognizing the heirs and placing them in possession of the estate of the deceased, the real estate shall be described in detail.  A registration in the office of the proper recorder of deeds of said judgment, or a certified copy thereof, shall be prima facie proof of title to said property in the heir or heirs therein named.

§ 196. Acceptance of estate on behalf of minors

Statute text
Where all or any of the heirs are minors, acceptance of the estate can only be made for said minors after the filing of an inventory and appraisement, as provided for by chapter 19 of this title, provided that the acceptance by either surviving spouse, by a guardian, or another authorized person or persons on behalf of a minor or minors shall not bind said minors with respect to the debts of the estate beyond their net equity in the assets of the decedent’s estate.

§ 197. Creditor’s lien

Statute text
Any creditor may obtain and preserve a lien against all property of the decedent by filing for recordation, within 1 year after the decedent’s death, in the office of the clerk of the court, a sworn itemized account of his claim and from the date of recordation said claim shall become a lien upon the assets of the estate until such lien is discharged by payment or cancelled by judgment of court in appropriate proceedings.

§ 198. Procedure where decedent left will

Statute text
If the decedent has left a last will and testament, the legatee or legatees under the will, may, after inventory and appraisement and appointment of executor or administrator, if an administration is unnecessary, apply to the court to be recognized and placed in possession upon strict observance of sections 191, 192, 193, 194 and 195 of this title.

§ 199. Service of process upon absent heir or legatee

Statute text
Any heir or legatee, non-resident of the Virgin Islands, or who shall remove therefrom after having been placed in possession of any of the assets of an estate under this chapter in relation to any claim against said estate is presumed to have consented to be sued in the District Court of the Virgin Islands and service on any such absent heir or legatee shall be sufficient if made upon the clerk of the district court in this territory.  The clerk of the court, upon receipt of the summons, is required to forward same promptly by registered mail to the heir or legatee named in said proceedings addressed to his or her last known address; provided that the time for filing the answer shall be sixty (60) days from the date of the service by the marshal on the clerk of the court.

Statute text
In the interval between the entry of a judgment placing heirs in possession as provided for in this chapter and 120 days thereafter, any alienation, transfer, assignment, mortgage or encumbrance of the assets of the estate shall be voidable as against any creditor prejudiced thereby, and any such creditor may cause the acts to be declared null as done in fraud of his rights.