§ 30.1-01-04 — (1-107) Evidence of death or status

In addition to the rules of evidence in courts of general jurisdiction, the following rules
relating to a determination of death and status apply:
1. Death occurs when an individual is determined to be dead under chapter 23-06.3.
2. A certified or authenticated copy of a death certificate purporting to be issued by an
official or agency of the place where the death purportedly occurred is prima facie
evidence of the fact, place, date, and time of death, and the identity of the decedent.
3. A certified or authenticated copy of any record or report of a governmental agency,
domestic or foreign, that an individual is missing, detained, dead, or alive is prima facie
evidence of the status and of the dates, circumstances, and places disclosed by the
record or report.
4. In the absence of prima facie evidence of death under subsection 2 or 3, the fact of
death may be established by clear and convincing evidence, including circumstantial
evidence.
5. An individual whose death is not established under this section, who is absent for a
continuous period of five years, during which the person has not been heard from, and
whose absence is not satisfactorily explained after diligent search or inquiry, is
presumed to be dead. The death is presumed to have occurred at the end of the
period unless there is sufficient evidence for determining that death occurred earlier.
6. In the absence of evidence disputing the time of death stated on a document
described in subsection 2 or 3, a document described in subsection 2 or 3 that states a
time of death one hundred twenty hours or more after the time of death of another

individual, however the time of death of the other individual is determined, establishes
by clear and convincing evidence that the individual survived the other individual by
one hundred twenty hours.