Time for Payment of Expenses of Administration, Funeral,

Last Illness, Family Allowance and Wage Claims; Payment of Other Debts and Legacies on Court Order; Funeral and Last Illness Expenses to be Debts of Decedent's Estate. (a) As soon as the personal representative has sufficient funds in his hands, after retaining sufficient to pay the expenses of administration, the personal representative must pay the funeral expenses, the expenses of the last illness, the family allowance, and wage clams to the extent of nine hundred dollars ($900.00) of each employee of the decedent for work done or personal services rendered within ninety (90) days prior to the death of the employer; but the personal representative is not obliged to pay any other debt or any legacy until, as prescribed in this Chapter, the payment has been ordered by the Superior Court. (b) Funeral expenses and expenses of last illness shall be deemed debts payable out of the estate of the deceased spouse, and shall not be charged to the community share of a surviving spouse, whether or not the surviving spouse is financially able to pay such expenses and whether or not the surviving spouse or any other person is also liable therefor. SOURCE: Subsection (a): Probate Code of Guam (1970), § 951. Subsection (b): California Probate Code, § 951.1 (as amended). COMMENT: Subsection (a) of § 2729 has been slightly altered from § 951 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970), to increase the amount of wage claims from $200.00 to $900.00; this has been done to cause § 2729 to comport with § 2727. Subsection (b) has been taken from § 951.1 of the California Probate Code, which was added in 1957 and amended in 1970. As with certain other new Sections, the purpose of subsection (b) is to rationalize the operation of the community property system upon the death of one of the members of the community; see Comments to §§ 2513, 2515, and 2535, supra.