CHAPTER 228 - CONVEYANCES RELATING TO POWER OF ATTORNEY OF PERSONS SERVING IN ARMED FORCES
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 92 OF THE REVISED CODE OF DELAWARE, 1935, AS AMENDED, BY PROVIDING FOR POWERS OF ATTORNEY GRANTED BY PERSONS SERVING IN OR PRESENT WITH THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES AND OTHERS, AND THE LEGAL EFFECT THEREOF IN THE EVENT OF DEATH OF PRINCIPAL WITHOUT NOTICE OR KNOWLEDGE THEREOF BY THE AGENT OR ATTORNEY IN FACT; CONCLUSIVE PROOF OF NONREVOCATION.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That Chapter 92 of the Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, be and the same is hereby amended by inserting the following section after 3673. Sec. 16., to be known as 3673A. Sec. 16A.:
3673A. Sec. 16A. Powers of Attorney Granted by Persons Serving in or Present With the Armed Forces of the United States and Others:--No Agency created prior to or subsequent to the passage of this section by a power of attorney in writing given by a principal who is at the time of execution, or who, after executing such power of attorney, becomes, either
(a) a member of the armed forces of the United States; or
(b) a person serving as a merchant seaman outside the limits of the United States, included within the forty-eight States and the District of Columbia; or
(c) a person outside said limits by permission, assignment or direction of any department or official of the United States government, in connection with any activity pertaining to or connected with the prosecution of any war in which the United States is then engaged, shall be revoked or terminated by the death of the principal, as to the agent or other person who, without actual knowledge or actual notice of the death of the principal, shall have acted or shall act, in good faith, under or in reliance upon such power of attorney or agency, and any action so taken, unless otherwise invalid or unenforceable, shall be binding on the heirs, devisees, legatees, or personal representative of the principal.
An affidavit, executed by the attorney-in-fact or agent, setting forth that he has not or had not, at the time of doing any act pursuant to the power of attorney, received actual knowledge or actual notice of the revocation or termination of the power of attorney, by death or otherwise, or notice of any facts indicating the same, shall, in the absence of fraud, be conclusive proof of the non-revocation or non-termination of the power at such time. If the exercise of the power requires execution and delivery of any instrument which is recordable under the laws of this State, such affidavit (when authenticated for record in the manner prescribed by law) shall likewise be recordable.
No report or listing, either official or otherwise, of "missing" or "missing in action", as such words are used in military parlance, shall constitute or be interpreted as constituting actual knowledge or actual notice of the death of such principal or notice of any facts indicating the same, or shall operate to revoke the agency.
This section shall not be construed so as to alter or affect any provision for revocation or termination contained in such power of attorney.
If any provision of this section or the application thereof to any person or circumstance be held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other provision or application of this section which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this section are declared to be severable.
Approved April 11, 1945.