Whenever the grantor, or his successor in title, in any deed of trust by which any real property is conveyed in trust to secure debts or indemnify sureties dies prior to a trustee’s sale held pursuant to the deed of trust and the deed of trust contains no definite provision for the distribution of any surplus in the event of the death of the grantor or his successors in title prior to the trustee’s sale held pursuant to the deed of trust, or contains a provision that such surplus shall be paid to the grantor or his heirs or assigns or personal representative, then any surplus of the proceeds of the sale remaining in the hands of the trustee, after discharging the expenses of executing the trust, all tax liens upon the property sold, and all debts and obligations secured by the deed of trust, shall be paid by the trustee to the personal representative of the decedent.Any funds so coming into the hands of the personal representative shall constitute assets for the payment by him first, of all existing liens against the property foreclosed which are subsequent to the deed of trust under which the trustee sells in the order of their priority, and secondly, of any debts and demands against the decedent’s estate remaining unsatisfied after the personal estate has been exhausted. Any surplus of the funds so paid to the personal representative and remaining in his hands after the satisfaction of all debts and demands against the estate shall be paid over by him, if the decedent died intestate as to the real property embraced in the deed of trust, to the heirs at law of the decedent, or their successors in title, and if the decedent died testate as to the real property embraced in the deed of trust, then such surplus shall be paid to the persons entitled to the real property under the terms of the decedent’s will, or to their successors in title.

History

1942, p. 94; Michie Code 1942, § 5167d; 1944, p. 389; 1990, c. 831.