CHAPTER 204

SALE OF LANDS BY EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS

AN ACT to amend Chapter 99 of the Revised Code of Delaware relating to sale of lands by executors and administrators.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Section 1. That Section 11 of Chapter 99 of the Revised Code of Delaware, being Section 3427 of said Revised Code, be and the same is hereby amended by striking out all of said Section and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

3427. Sec. 11. APPLICATION OF PROCEEDS; ORDER OF: The purchase money of a sale, made by authority of this Chapter, (all just charges to be allowed by the Orphans' Court, being first deducted) shall be applied to outstanding debts against the deceased, in the following order, that is to say:

FIRST CLASS: To judgments against the deceased which, before the sale, were liens on the premises sold, and to recognizances and mortgages entered into, or executed, by him with condition for the payment of money, or interest, absolutely, and not dependent on a contingency, and which, before said sale, were liens on the premises sold ; such judgments, recognizances and mortgages shall be of equal grade, but shall be preferred in payment according to the legal priority of their lien respectively; and if in an action, or proceeding, upon a recognizance, obligation, or mortgage entered into, or executed, by said deceased with other condition than for the absolute payment of money, or interest, (but which was by its own force or legal effect, without judgment thereon, a lien on the premises sold) a sum shall have been assessed, or ascertained, as payable, or recoverable by virtue thereof, and judgment, or decree, shall, at the time of said sale, have been thereupon given, or pronounced, the said sum, so assessed, or ascertained with the costs, shall stand in priority, according to the date of said obligation, or recognizance, or of the depositing of the said mortgage duly acknowledged, or proved, in the proper Recorder's office to be recorded, and shall be preferred, in payment, according to such priority ; but in no other case, shall the proceeds of such sale be applied, or retained, for the purpose of being applied to any recognizance, obligation, or mortgage, entered into, or executed, by the deceased with other condition than for the absolute payment of money or interest, in preference to, or to the postponement of, any debt outstanding against said deceased.

But no debt shall be regarded as within this class unless it was before the said sale a lien on the premises sold; a sum assessed, or ascertained, as mentioned under this class, being here understood to be demandable by virtue of the mortgage, recognizance, or obligation, upon which the action, or proceeding, was instituted.

SECOND CLASS: To other debts outstanding against the deceased, observing the same rule of priority as prescribed by Chapter 98.

Approved April 12, A. D. 1927.