NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1979 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 784

HOUSE BILL 1343

 

 

AN ACT TO PERMIT PROOF OF SIGNATURE OF WITNESS TO A WILL OUTSIDE OF COUNTY OF PROBATE THROUGH USE OF CERTIFIED PHOTOGRAPHIC COPY OF THE ORIGINAL WILL.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  Chapter 31 of the General Statutes of North Carolina is amended by adding a new section immediately following G.S. 31-25, to be designated G.S. 31-25.1, and to read as follows:

"§ 31-25.1.  Proof by certified photographic copy of original will. — Whenever the attesting witnesses, or any of them, are nonresidents of the county in which the original will is offered for probate, but are residents of this State, proof of their signatures as attesting witnesses may be taken by the clerk of superior court of the county of residence of the said witnesses, upon receipt of a commission to do so through use of a photographic copy of the original will certified to be a true and exact copy thereof by the clerk of the county in which the will is to be probated. The clerk of the county of residence of such witnesses shall take the deposition of such witnesses, and, upon return of the commission and depositions to the clerk of court in which the will is to be probated, the said clerk shall adjudge the will to be duly proved thereon as if the witnesses had appeared in person before him."

Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 5th day of June, 1979.