Order of Court; Payment to Treasurer of Guam; Escheat. (a) Whenever an estate is in all other respects ready to be closed, and it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the Superior Court, by affidavit or by evidence taken in open court, that an allowed and ap- proved claim has not and cannot be paid because the claimant cannot be found, the Superior Court shall make an order fixing the amount of the claim, with interest, if any, and directing the personal representative to deposit that amount with any bank duly licensed to do business in Guam, which shall give a receipt for the same. Thereupon the personal representative shall make the deposit and shall forthwith proceed to settle and close the estate. The receipt of the bank shall be received as a proper voucher for the payment of the claim. (b) When money deposited pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a) of this Section is not claimed within five (5) years after the date of its deposit, the Superior Court of Guam, upon such showing by the affidavit of an officer if the bank in which such money is deposited, must direct the same to be deposited in the Treasury of Guam for the benefit of the Government of Guam, whereupon the same devolves and escheats to the Government of Guam. SOURCE: Subsection (a): Probate Code of Guam (1970), § 738. Subsection (b): Probate Code of Guam (1970), § 739; Guam Law Revision Commission. COMMENT: Section 739 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970) also contained a provision concerning what was to happen to money deposited in a bank after five years, if it went unclaimed for that period; however, the provision was so poorly drafted as to be incomprehensible. The Commission is of the opinion that a five- year period is ample time for a claimant -- who, it should be remembered, initiated the claim himself -- to claim from the bank the amount of his claim. The Commis- sion has thus redrafted § 739, such that if money so deposited in a bank is not claimed within a five-year period, it will forthwith escheat to the Government of Guam.
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