Sec. 110. UNKNOWN 【HEIRS] parties. Upon allegation under oath, and proof satisfactory to the court, that it is unknown whether one who, if living, would be a proper party to any judicial proceeding is living or dead, such party may be proceeded against as if he were living, and with like effect, provided no representative of or claimant under such person shall intervene in the suit before final determination thereof, after notice by publication as in the case of nonresident parties. If such person be dead, and it is unknown whether he died testate or left heirs, or his heirs and devisees be unknown, such unknown persons may be described as the heirs or devisees of the person who, if living, would be the proper party, and notice shall be given by publication to such persons according to such description, and the same proceedings shall be had against them as are had against nonresident defendants, except that said notice shall be published at least twice a month for such period as the court may order, which period shall not be less than three months without good cause shown, and which notice shall require said parties to appear on or before the first rule day occurring after the expiration of such prescribed period, and no decree shall be passed against said parties unless the court shall be satisfied that due diligence has been used to ascertain such unknown heirs.

Sec. 111. ADVERSE POSSESSION.-When title to any real estate in the District of Columbia shall have become vested in any person or persons by adverse possession, the holder thereof may file a bill in the supreme court of the District of Columbia to have such title perfected, in which bill it shall be sufficient to allege that the complainant holas the title to such real estate, and that the same has vested in him, or in himself and in those under whom he claims, by adverse possession; and in such action it shall not be necessary to make any person a party defendant except such persons as may appear to have a claim or title adverse to that of the plaintiff complainant. Upon the trial of such cause, proof of the facts showing title in the [plaintiff complainant by adverse possession shall entitle him to a decree of the court declaring his title by adverse possession, and a copy of such decree may be entered of record in the office of the recorder of deeds for said. District. In any such action if process shall be returned not to be found, notice by publication may be substituted as in case of nonresident defendants. If in any case it shall be unknown whether one who, if living, would be an adverse party is living or dead, or in the case of a decedent, whether he died testate or left heirs, or his heirs or devisees are unknown, the cause may be proceeded with under the provisions of section one hundred and [nine] ten: Provided, That the rights of infants or others under legal disability shall be saved for a period of two years after the removal of their disabilities: Provided, however, That the entire period during which such rights shall be preserved shall not exceed twenty-two years from the time such rights accrued, either in said [claimant] complainant or in the person or persons under whom he claims.

Sec. 112. CORPORATIONS.—In a suit against a corporation, whether foreign or domestic, if process can not be served, such corporation may be proceeded against as a nonresident defendant, by notice by publication.

Sec. 113. ENFORCEMENT OF DECREES.-The said court may, for the purpose of executing a decree, or to compel obedience to the same,

issue an attachment against the person of the defendant, and may order an immediate sequestration of his real and personal estate, or such part thereof as may be necessary to satisfy the decree, or may issue a fieri facias and attachment by way of execution against his lands, tenements, chattels, and credits, or other incorporeal property, to satisfy the decree; or the court may, by order and injunction, cause the possession of the estate and effects whereof the possession or a sale is decreed to be delivered to the complainant, or otherwise, according to the tenor and import of the decree and as the nature of the case may require; and in case of sequestration may order payment and satisfaction to be made out of the estate and effects so sequestrated, according to the true intent and meaning of the decree; and in case any defendant shall be arrested and brought into court upon any process of contempt issued to compel the performance of any decree, the court may, upon motion, order such defendant to stand committed, or may order his estate and effects to be sequestrated and payment made, as above directed, or possession of his estate and effects to be delivered by order and injunction as above directed, until such decree or order shall be fully performed and executed, according to the tenor and true meaning thereof, and the contempt cleared; but where the decree only directs the payment of money no defendant shall be imprisoned except in those cases especially provided for.

Sec. 114. All interlocutory orders may be enforced by such process as might be had upon a final judgment or decree to the like effect, and the payment of costs adjudged to any party may be enforced in like

manner.

Sec. 115. An order or decree for the delivery of chattels may be enforced by the same writs as are used in the action of replevin at common law, as well as those heretofore used for its enforcement in equity practice.

Sec. 115a. LUNACY PROCEEDINGS.-All writs du lunatico inquirendo shall issue from said equity court, and the justice holding said court shall preside at all inquisitions of lunacy, and, when necessary, may use a jury from either the circuit or criminal court, or may cause a special jury to be summoned for such inquisitions.

Sec. 115b. ESTATES OF LUNATICS. The said court shall have full power and authority to superintend and direct the affairs of persons non compos mentis, and to appoint a committee or trustees for such persons after hearing the nearest relatives of such person or some of them if residing within the jurisdiction of the court, and to make such orders and decrees for the care of their persons and the management and preservation of their estates, including the collection, sale, exchange, and reinvestment of their personal estate, as to the court may seem proper. The court may, upon such terms as under the circumstances of the case it may deem proper, decree the conveyance and release of any right of dower of a person non compos mentis, whether the same be inchoate or otherwise.

Sec. 115c. The court shall have the same power in respect of the freehold or leasehold estates of such persons as is provided for in relation to the estates of infants, to be exercised upon the application of the guardian, trustee, or committee of such person; and upon the

[NOTE.-Sections 115a to 115f, inclusive, were inserted by the act of June 30, 1902.]

death of any such person non compos mentis the proceeds of any sale of his estate which may have been invested otherwise than in real estate shall be deemed real estate, and shall descend as the property or estate would if it had not been sold.

Sec. 115d. The said court may order any part of the estate of a person non compos mentis, for whom a committee, guardian, or trustee has been appointed, to be sold, when necessary for his maintenance, upon application of said committee, guardian, or trustee, and full proof of the necessity of such sale. Upon the application of any judgment creditor or mortgagee of a person non compos mentis the court may decree a sale of the real or personal estate of such non compos mentis, or such part thereof as may be necessary to pay the claim of such creditor, upon being satisfied that such claim is just and there are no other means of paying the same.

Sec. 115e. No sales of the property of infants or persons non compos mentis made by authority of the aforegoing sections shall be valid and effectual to pass title to the property sold until they have been reported to and ratified by the court.

Sec. 115f. DRUNKARDS.-Whenever any person residing in said District, and owning any estate, real or personal, situate therein, is unfit from the habitual use of intoxicating liquors, or from the habitual use of opium, cocaine, or any similar substance, or any compound or derivative thereof, to properly manage or control the same, the said court, on the petition of any creditor or relative of such person, or if there be no creditor or relative, upon the petition of any person living in said District, and upon summons being regularly served upon such person so alleged to be unfit to manage or control his property as aforesaid, commanding him to appear and answer such petition, may order a jury to be summoned to ascertain whether such person be an habitual drunkard or addicted to the habitual use of opium, cocaine, or any similar substance or any compound or derivative thereof and unfit from any of these causes to manage and control his property, and if the jury shall find that such person is an habitual drunkard or an habitual user of opium, cocaine, or any similar substance or any compound or derivative thereof and unfit to manage or control his property, such finding, when confirmed by the court, shall be entered of record is said cause, and it shall be the duty of the court thereupon to appoint some fit person to be committee of the person so declared unfit to manage or control his property as aforesaid.

Such committee before entering upon the discharge of his duties shall execute a bond, with surety, to be approved by the said court or one of the justices thereof, to the United States in a penalty equal to the amount of the personal property and the yearly rents to be derived from the real estate of such person, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties as such committee; and he shall have control of the said estate, real and personal, with power to collect all debts due said drunkard, and to adjust and settle all accounts owing by him, and to sue and be sued in his representative capacity. He shall apply the annual income of the estate of such habitual drunkard to the support of said person, and the maintenance of his family and education of his children; and shall in all other respects perform the same duties and have the same rights as pertain to committees of lunatics and idiots. When any person for whom a committee has been appointed under

the provisions of this section shall become competent to manage his property on account of reformation in his habits, he may apply to said court to have said committee discharged and the care and control of his property restored to him; and if it shall appear by the verdict of a jury summoned therefor, or by affidavits, or other evidence to the satisfaction of the court, that said applicant is a fit person to have the care or control of his property, an order shall be entered restoring such person to all the rights and privileges enjoyed before said committee was appointed. And as to the property of any person for whom a committee has been so appointed the court shall have the same powers that are herein given to it in respect of the property of infants.

Sec. 116. PROBATE COURT.-The special term of said supreme court, heretofore known as the orphans' court, shall be designated the probate court, and the justice holding said court shall have and exercise all the powers and jurisdiction by law held and exercised by the orphans' court of Washington County, District of Columbia, prior to the twenty-first day of June, anno Domini eighteen hundred and

seventy.

Sec. 117. That in addition to the jurisdiction conferred in the preceding section, plenary jurisdiction is hereby given to the said court holding the said special term to hear and determine all questions relating to the execution and to the validity of any and all wills devising any real estate within the District of Columbia, and of any and all wills and testaments properly presented for probate therein, and to admit the same to probate and record in said special term; and neither the execution nor the validity of any such will or testament so admitted to probate and record shall be impeached or examined collaterally, but the same shall be in all respects and as to all persons res judicata, subject, nevertheless, to the provisions hereinafter contained.

Sec. 118. The said court shall hold weekly sessions on such days as it may appoint and on as many days as may be necessary for the dispatch of its business.

Sec. 119. POWERS.-It shall have full power and authority to take the proof of wills of either personal or real estate and admit the same to probate and record, and for cause to revoke the probate thereof; to grant and, for any of the causes hereinafter mentioned, to revoke letters testamentary, letters of administration, letters ad colligendum, and letters of guardianship, and to appoint a successor in the place of anyone whose letters have been revoked; to hear, examine, and decree upon all accounts, claims, and demands existing between executors and administrators and legatees, or persons entitled to a distributive share of an intestate estate, or between wards and their guardians; to enforce the rendition of inventories and accounts by executors, administrators, collectors, guardians, and trustees required to account to said court; to enforce the distribution of estates by executors and administrators, and the payment or delivery by guardians of money or property belonging to their wards [, and, concurrently with the equity court, to direct the sale of real estate of decedents for the payment of their debts and the application of the proceeds thereof]: Provided, That the jurisdiction of said probate court shall not be exclusive of the jurisdiction of the said equity court to entertain suits by legatees or next of kin against executors or administrators, or by wards against their guardians for

an accounting; and, except in cases provided for in section numbered one hundred and [forty-four] forty-five, any settlement of accounts in said probate court shall only be prima facie evidence as to the correctness of said accounts in any such suits, or in suits by creditors against executors or administrators, or against heirs or devisees, to subject the real estate of decedents to the payments of their debts.

Sec. 120. CLERK.-The register of wills of the District of Columbia shall be, and hereby is, authorized, empowered, and directed to act as clerk of the said probate term, to keep and certify its records and generally, with respect to said term, to exercise all the powers and perform all the duties which might otherwise be properly exercised or performed by the clerk of the supreme court of the District of Columbia.

Sec. 121. The said register of wills may receive inventories and accounts of sales, examine vouchers, and state accounts of executors, administrators, collectors, and guardians, subject to final passage or rejection of same by the court, may take probate of claims against the estates of deceased persons that are proper to be brought before him, and pass any claims not exceeding three hundred dollars; may take the probate of wills and accept the bonds of executors, administrators, collectors, and guardians, subject to approval by the court. It shall be his duty to make full and fair entries of the proceedings of said court, and also to make a fair record in a strong bound book or books of all wills proved before him or said court, and of all other matters by law directed to be recorded in said court, and to lodge every original paper filed with him in such place of safety as the court may appoint. He shall make out and issue every summons, process, and order of the court, and in every respect act under its control and direction in reference to matters coming within the jurisdiction of said court. He shall be, and hereby is, authorized to appoint two deputies, who may do and perform any and all the acts necessary in the administration of his office and the certification of the records of said court which he himself is authorized to do; also to appoint and fix the number and the compensation of the employees of said probate court and office of register of wills: Provided, That any expenditures incurred by him in so doing shall not be a charge upon the public Treasury, but shall, together with his own compensation, at the rate of four thousand dollars per annum, be paid out of the revenues of the office of register of wills: And provided further, That the employees of said office shall not be in excess of the number actually necessary for the proper conduct of the office of said register of wills.-Act of June 30, 1902.

[Sec. 121. The said register of wills may receive inventories and accounts of sales, examine vouchers, and state accounts of executors, administrators, collectors, and guardians, subject to final passage or rejection of same by the court; may take probate of claims against the estates of deceased persons that are proper to be brought before him, and pass any claims not exceeding three hundred dollars; may take the probate of wills and accept the bonds of executors, administrators, collectors, and guardians, subject to approval by the court. It shall be his duty to make full and fair entries of the proceedings of said court, and also to make a fair record in a strong bound book or books of all wills proved before him or said court, and of all other matters by law directed to be recorded in said court, and to lodge every original paper filed with him in such place of safety as the court may appoint. He shall make out and issue every summons, process, and order of the court, and in every respect act under its control and direction in reference to matters coming within the jurisdiction of said court. He shall be, and hereby is, authorized to appoint a deputy, who may, in his absence, do and perform any and all the acts necessary in the