CHAPTER 382
COURT OF CHANCERY
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 117 OF THE REVISED CODE OF DELAWARE, 1935, AS AMENDED, RELATIVE TO "COURT OF CHANCERY," RELATING TO SALE OF TRUST PROPERTY BY ORDER OF THE CHANCELLOR MADE IN HIS DISCRETION.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That Chapter 117 of the Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, be and the same hereby is amended by striking out and repealing all of 4403, Section 37 thereof and inserting and enacting in lieu thereof a new section to be styled 4403. Sec. 37, as follows:
4403. Sec. 37. SALE OF TRUST PROPERTY FREE FROM TRUST; HOW EFFECTED; NO SALE, WHEN TERMS OF TRUST PROHIBIT; SALE MAY BE ORDERED NOTWITHSTANDING ABSENCE OF CONSENT, WHEN; PROCEEDS OF SALE HELD SUBJECT TO SAME TRUST; TRUSTEE TO GIVE BOND FOR PRESERVATION OF TRUST:--Upon petition of any trustee having the legal title to any property, real, personal or mixed, setting forth that the sale and conversion thereof would be for the best interests of the trust estate and the persons beneficially interested in the trust, the Chancellor may, by order made thereon in his discretion, except where such sale or conversion has been prohibited by the instrument creating the trust, authorize and direct such trustee to sell the whole or so much as may be proper, of such trust property, and to transfer and convey the same to the purchaser thereof, absolutely and in fee simple, freed from any trust and without liability on the part of such purchaser as to the application of the purchase money; provided that in cases where the sale or conversion of trust property has not been expressly prohibited by the instrument creating the trust, but the said instrument provides that the trustee shall sell or convert only with the consent of one or more persons, or makes the trustee's power of sale
contingent on one or more persons joining in its exercise, the Chancellor may confer upon the trustee power to make the sale or conversion without such consent or without any one or more of such persons joining in the exercise of such power or sale if any one or more of the persons required to consent or to join in such exercise of the trustee's power of sale shall be a minor, non-compos mentis, have died, unreasonably withhold consent, or be absent and unheard of, and in the opinion of the Chancellor the sale or conversion is for the best interests of the trust estate and the persons beneficially interested therein; and provided, moreover, that the proceeds of all sales made under the authority of this section shall be held under and subject to the same trusts as those to which the property sold was subject; and, in cases where real property is to be sold, the trustee thereof shall first give sufficient bond, with surety to be approved by the Chancellor, for the preservation and protection of the proceeds of such sales for the purposes of the trust and subject to the orders and decrees of the Chancellor in the premises.