Sec. 1. Actions which may and which may not be brought against executor or administrator. - No action upon a claim for the recovery of money or debt or interest thereon shall be commenced against the executor or administrator; but actions to recover real or personal property, or an interest therein, from the estate, or to enforce a lien thereon, and actions to recover damages for an injury to person or property, real or personal, may be commenced against him.
Sec. 2. Executor or administrator may bring or defend actions which survive. - For the recovery or protection of the property or rights of the deceased, an executor or administrator may bring or defend, in the right of the deceased, actions for causes which survive.
Sec. 3. Heir may not sue until have share assigned. - When an executor or administrator is appointed and assumes the trust, no action to recover the title or possession of lands or for damages done to such lands shall be maintained against him by an heir or devisee until there is an order of the court assigning such lands to such heir or devisee until the time allowed for paying debts has expired.
Sec. 4. Executor or administrator may compound with debtor. - With the approval of the court, an executor or administrator may compound with the debtor of the deceased for a debt due, and may give a discharge of such debt on receiving a just dividend of the estate of the debtor.
Sec. 5. Mortgage due estate may be foreclosed. - A mortgage belonging to the estate of a deceased person, as mortgagee or assignee of the right of a mortgagee, may be foreclosed by the executor or administrator.
Sec. 6. Proceedings when property concealed, embezzled, or fraudulently conveyed. - If an executor or administrator, heir, legatee, creditor, or other individual interested in the estate of the deceased, complains to the court having jurisdiction of the estate that a person is suspected of having concealed, embezzled, or conveyed away any of the money, goods, or chattels of the deceased, or that such person has in his possession or has knowledge of any deed, conveyance, bond, contract, or other writing which contains evidence of or tends to disclose the right, title, interest, or claim of the deceased to real or personal estate, or the last will and testament of the deceased, the court may cite such suspected person to appear before it and may examine him on oath on the matter of such complaint; and if the person so cited refuses to appear, or to answer on such examination or such interrogatories as are put to him, the court may punish him for contempt, and may commit him to prison until he submits to the order of the court. The interrogatories put to any such person, and his answers thereto, shall be in writing and shall be filed in the clerk's office.
Sec. 7. Person entrusted with estate compelled to render account. - The court, on complaint of an executor or administrator, may cite a person entrusted by an executor or administrator with any part of the estate of the deceased to appear before it, and may require such person to render a full account, on oath, of the money, goods, chattels, bonds, accounts, or other papers belonging to such estate as came to his possession in trust for such executor or administrator, and of his proceedings thereon; and if the person so cited refuses to appear to render such account, the court may punish him for contempt as having disobeyed a lawful order of the court.
Sec. 8. Embezzlement before letters issued. - If a person, before the granting of letters testamentary or of administration on the estate of the deceased, embezzles or alienates any of the money, goods, chattels, or effects of such deceased, such person shall be liable to an action in favor of the executor or administrator of the estate for double the value of the property sold, embezzled, or alienated, to be recovered for the benefit of such estate.
Sec. 9. Property fraudulently conveyed by deceased may be recovered; When executor or administrator must bring action. - When there is deficiency of assets in the hands of an executor or administrator for the payment of debts and expenses of administration, and the deceased in his lifetime had conveyed real or personal property, or a right or interest therein, or a debt or credit, with intent to defraud his creditors or to avoid any right, debt, or duty; or had so conveyed such property, right, interest, debt, or credit that by law the conveyance would be void as against his creditors, and the subject of the attempted conveyance would be liable to attachment by any of them in his lifetime, the executor or administrator may commence and prosecute to final judgment an action for the recovery of such property, right, interest, debt, or credit for the benefit of the creditors; but he shall not be bound to commence the action unless on application of the creditors of the deceased, nor unless the creditors making the application pay such part of the costs and expenses, or give security therefor to the executor or administrator, as the court deems equitable.
Sec. 10. When creditor may bring action; Lien for costs. - When there is such a deficiency of assets, and the deceased in his lifetime had made or attempted such a conveyance, as is stated in the last preceding section, and the executor or administrator has not commenced the action therein provided for, any creditor of the estate may, with the permission of the court, commence and prosecute to final judgment, in the name of the executor or administrator, a like action for the recovery of the subject of the conveyance or attempted conveyance for the benefit of the creditors. But the action shall not be commenced until the creditors has filed in a court a bond executed to the executor or administrator, in an amount approved by the judge, conditioned to indemnify the executor or administrator against the costs and expenses incurred by reason of such action. Such creditor shall have a lien upon any judgment recovered by him in the action for such costs and other expenses incurred therein as the court deems equitable. Where the conveyance or attempted conveyance has been made by the deceased in his lifetime in favor of the executor or administrator, the action which a creditor may bring shall be in the name of all the creditors, and permission of the court and filing of bond as above prescribed, are not necessary.
