upon residents of said District who have been returned "Not to be found" under paragraph (a) of this section, and such service may be made only by a person not less than eighteen years of age who is not a party to or otherwise interested in the estate of the decedent, and the return in such case must be made under oath in the District of Columbia, unless the person making the service be a sheriff or deputy sheriff, a marshal or deputy marshal, authorized to serve process where service is made, and such return must show the time and place of service

(c) Such notice, whenever there is proof by the petition for probate or by other affidavit that any or all of such persons, interested as aforesaid, are nonresidents of the District of Columbia, or whenever they or any of them have been returned "Not to be found" under paragraph (a) of this section, may be by a publication in which the return date named is not less than thirty days after the date of the first appearance of the publication, and which shall be published once in each of three successive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in the District of Columbia, and a copy of this published notice shall be mailed to the last-known address of each of the persons, interested as aforesaid, who is not shown to have been returned served personally under either paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this section. The court may by general rule prescribe the form of such notice by publication, and may order such other publication as the case may require.

[SEC. 131. PROBATE.-On the day appointed as aforesaid, or such subsequent day as the court may appoint, due proof of such publication and mailing being made, the court shall proceed to take proof of the will. All the witnesses to such will who are within the District and competent to testify must be produced and examined, or the absence of any of them satisfactorily accounted for.]

SEC. 131. PROBATE.-When notice as prescribed in section 130 has been completed in any case, the court shall proceed, if no caveat be filed, to take the proofs, or to consider the proofs theretofore taken, of the execution of the will. All the witnesses to such will who are within the District and competent to testify must be produced and examined, or the absence of any of them satisfactorily accounted for.

AMENDING SECTION 16-416 OF THE CODE OF LAWS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, TO CONFORM TO THE NOMENCLATURE AND PRACTICE PRESCRIBED BY THE FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

JUNE 7, 1949.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. HARRIS. from the Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following

REPORT

(To accompany S. 1129)

The Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1129) to amend section 16-416 of the Code of Laws of the District of Columbia, to conform to the nomenclature and practice prescribed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of this bill is to change the word "petition" to "complaint" in the section of the District Code relating to application for divorce and decrees annulling marriage so as to conform the code to the nomenclature used in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

This bill has the approval of the District Bar Association and the

District Commissioners.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with paragraph 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill, as introduced, are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed in italics, existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman):

[All applications for divorce or for a decree annulling a marriage shall be made by petition to the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, and the proceedings thereupon shall be the same as in equity causes, except so far

as otherwise herein provided.]

All applications for divorce or for a decree annulling a marriage shall be made by complaint to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the proceedings thereupon shall be the same as in equity causes, except so far as otherwise herein provided.

O

AMENDING SECTIONS 260, 267, 309, 315, 348, 350, AND 361 OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CODE

JUNE 7, 1949.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. HARRIS, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following

REPORT

(To accompany S. 1131]

The Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1131) amending sections 260, 267, 309, 315, 348, 350, and 361 of the act entitled "An act to establish a Code of Law for the District of Columbia," approved March 3, 1901, to provide that estates of decedents being administered within the probate court may be settled at the election of the personal representative of the decedent in that court 6 months after his qualification as such personal representative, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of this bill is to permit the closing of estates in the regular course of administration within 6 months of the appointment of the personal representative.

This bill was endorsed by the District of Columbia Bar Association which presented the following justification:

The proceedings of the Judicial Conference (District of Columbia Bar Journal, 1947, pp. 458-468, 500-505) show the unanimity of opinion among lawyers and judges favoring the right to close an estate, in regular course of administration, within 6 months of the appointment of the personal representative. Col. Theodore Cogswell, Register of Wills, favored a 6-month period of administration in 1936 (Bar Journal, September 1936, p. 17) and he was so recorded at the Judicial Conference, above. Providing only for a permissible, alternative, 6-month period of administration this act (bill) accords the benefit of that shorter period to the personal representatives who can, and are expected to, avail themselves of it, and yet leaves the longer period available in other cases, particularly the large estates subject to Federal taxes.

The act (bill) accelerates from 1 year to 6 months the time for asserting creditor's rights against the estate of a nonresident decedent (code, sec. 18-501); the act (bill) reduces the time within which an absent executor must qualify (code, sec. 20-306); it reduces the time for inventories from 3 months to 2 months (code, sec. 18-401 and 18-407); it reduces the time within which a creditor, whose claim is rejected, must sue the fiduciary, from 9 months to 3 months (code, sec. 18-518):

H. Repts., 81-1, vol. 4-14