(1)If any heirs or devisees of
any intestate or testator are unknown, or if known and there is no person qualified
to receive devises or distributive shares of such heirs or devisees at the time of
making final settlement of the estate, or if such heirs or devisees refuse to receive
and receipt for such devises or distributive shares, or in the event there is no taker
under the provisions of article 11 of this title, the personal representative shall
reduce all such devises or distributive shares to cash and shall be ordered by the
court to pay any balances remaining in his hands to the state treasurer; and the
state shall be answerable for the same, without interest, anytime within twenty-one
years after the same shall have been paid into the treasury, to such person or
persons
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(1) If any heirs or devisees of
any intestate or testator are unknown, or if known and there is no person qualified
to receive devises or distributive shares of such heirs or devisees at the time of
making final settlement of the estate, or if such heirs or devisees refuse to receive
and receipt for such devises or distributive shares, or in the event there is no taker
under the provisions of article 11 of this title, the personal representative shall
reduce all such devises or distributive shares to cash and shall be ordered by the
court to pay any balances remaining in his hands to the state treasurer; and the
state shall be answerable for the same, without interest, anytime within twenty-one
years after the same shall have been paid into the treasury, to such person or
persons as shall appear to be legally entitled to the same, upon order of the court
having administration of the estate.
(2) Except as provided in subsection (1) of this section, any person,
corporation, association, or other entity in possession of moneys paid to him or it or
in his or its possession in any fiduciary capacity, and the said moneys are unclaimed,
or the person to whom the person in possession may lawfully pay the same, or the
person who may be entitled thereto is unknown or absent or fails to receive and
properly receipt therefor, may pay said moneys to the state treasurer; and the state
shall be answerable for the same, without interest, anytime within twenty-one years
after the same shall have been paid to the state treasurer; such payment to the
state treasurer shall discharge the person making the same from any further
liability or responsibility for such moneys.
(3) After the lapse of twenty-one years from the time any such moneys shall
be paid into the state treasury, and no claim therefor having been made and
established by any person entitled thereto, said moneys shall become the property
of the state and shall be transferred to the public school fund thereof, and the state
shall not be liable therefor. Prior to said lapse of twenty-one years, such moneys
may be invested by the state treasurer, and all interest or increment therefrom
shall be credited to the general fund.
(4) At the time any personal representative or other fiduciary pays into the
state treasury any moneys, he or she shall make a written report thereof to the
attorney general of the state, giving the attorney general such information as he or
she may have, under oath or affirmation, touching the identity and antecedents of
the deceased, as well as of any person supposed to be entitled to said moneys, to
the end that fictitious claims to the moneys may be forestalled. The attorney
general shall file such reports in his or her office and keep the index thereof, and a
court shall not make an order for the repayment of any moneys so paid into the
state treasury without the attorney general having first been served with written
notice thirty days before the time of making application therefor. Upon the serving
of such notice, the attorney general is classified as an interested person under this
code and may appear and take all steps for and on behalf of the state that any
person who might be a defendant to such action might take. The reasonable
expense of any such action taken by the attorney general must be initially paid out
of the attorney general's contingent fund; but, with the approval, order, and
direction of the court having jurisdiction of the estate, any such reasonable expense
incurred by the attorney general in conserving the estate and in investigating and
litigating the claim of any alleged heir, devisee, distributee, or creditor must be
repaid to said contingent fund out of the moneys in the estate or fund in
controversy before final settlement thereof.
(5) No estate or trust shall be permitted to remain open for the reason that
an heir or devisee or beneficiary is unknown or cannot be located or refuses to
receive and receipt for his share. All property subject to the provisions of
subsection (1) of this section shall be paid to the state treasurer no later than three
months after the entry of the order of final settlement or no later than six months
after such property becomes eligible for distribution, whichever date is the earlier.