Volume 49 · 39
Public Law 74–28
To amend certain sections of the code of law for the District of Columbia, approved March 3, 1901, as amended, relating to descent and distribution.
Approved March 6, 1935
Statutory text
AN ACT
To amend certain sections of the code of law for the District of Columbia, approved March 3, 1901, as amended, relating to descent and distribution.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That section 380
District of Columbia Code Amendments.
Vol. 31, p. 1250.
Wills find administration.
of the Act entitled “An Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia”, approved March 3. 1901, as amended (D. C. Code, title 29, sec. 288), is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 380.
If there be no child, or descendant, the whole shall go
Distribution; to father, mother.
to the father and mother in equal shares, or to the survivor of them.”
Sec. 2.
Section 384 of such Act, as amended (D. C. Code, title 29, sec. 292), is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 384.
If there be no collaterals, the grandfathers and grandmothers,
To grandfathers, grandmothers.
or such of them as survive, shall take alike.”
Sec. 3.
Section 940 of such Act, as amended (D. C. Code,
Vol. 31, p. 1342.
title 25, see. 231), is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 940. Course of descents generally.—
On the death of any
Property.
Course of descents generally.
person seized of an estate in fee simple in lands, tenements, or hereditaments in the District of Columbia, and intestate thereof, the same shall descend in fee simple to such person’s kindred in the following order, namely:
“First.
To his child or children and their descendants, if any, equally.
“Second.
If there be no child or descendant of a child, then equally to the father and mother of the intestate, or the whole to the sole surviving parent.
“Third.
If there be no father or mother, then to the brothers and sisters of the intestate, and their descendants equally.
“Fourth.
If there be no brother or sister, or descendant from a brother or sister, then the whole shall go to the widow or widower of the intestate.
“Fifth.
If none such, then one moiety of the estate shall go to the paternal, the other to the maternal kindred of the intestate in the following order:
“Sixth.
First to the grandfather and grandmother equally, but if one be dead the entire moiety to the sole surviving grandparent.
“Seventh.
If none, then to the uncles and aunts of the intestate, and their descendants equally.
“Eighth.
If none such, then to the great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. in the same manner prescribed for grandfather and grandmother in subdivision 6.
“Ninth.
If none, then to the brothers and sisters of the grand-fathers and grandmothers, and their descendants equally.
“Tenth.
And so on in other cases, without end, passing to the nearest lineal ancestors and the descendants of such ancestors.
“Eleventh.
If there be no paternal kindred, the whole shall go to the maternal kindred; and if there be no maternal kindred, the whole shall go to the paternal kindred. If there be neither maternal or paternal kindred, the whole shall go to the kindred of the husband or wife of the intestate in the like course as if such husband or wife had died entitled to the estate; and if the intestate has had more husbands or wives than one, and all have died before such intestate, then the estate shall be equally divided among the kindred of the several husbands or wives in equal degree equally.”
Sections 941 to 951, inclusive, of such Act, as amended (D. C.
Vol. 31, pp. 1342–1343.
Code, title 25, secs. 232 to 242, inclusive), are hereby repealed.
Sec. 4.
Section 954 of such Act, as amended (D. C. Code, title 25, sec. 245), is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 954.
In no ease shall there be any distinction between the
Property representation.
kindred of the whole- and the half-blood.”
Sec. 5.
Section 955 of such Act, as amended (D. C. Code, title 25, sec. 246), is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 955.
Whenever those entitled to share in the estate in fee simple in lands, tenements, or hereditaments in the District of Columbia, of an intestate, are all in the same degree of kindred to the intestate, they shall take per capita or by persons; and, where a part of them are dead and a part living, the issue of those dead shall take per stirpes or by stocks the shares of their deceased parents.”
Approved, March 6, 1935.