trator, and shall be entiled to subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses, on such hearing.

If it shall appear that the deceased has left any will of his personal property, by which any executor is appointed who is competent, and qualified according to law to take upon him the execution of such will; or if it shall appear that there is a widow or any relative of the deceased entitled to a share in his estate, willing, competent, and qualified, according to law to take letters of administration, with the will annexed, if there be one, or to take letters of administration if there be no will, then letters testamentary shall be granted to such executor, or letters of administration shall be granted to such widow or relative, as in other cases.

Upon such letters testamentary or letters of administration being granted, all control and authority of the public administrator, over the estate of the deceased, shall cease, and every order that may have been previously granted to him in relation to the estate, shall be revoked.

The expenses incurred by the public administrator, in all necessary measures for securing and guarding the effects of the deceased, from waste and embezzlement, of serving and publishing the notice aforesaid, and of obtaining any necessary order from the surrogate, and of executing such order, shall be taxed and allowed by the surrogate, and may be retained by the public administrator out of any monies or effects of the deceased in his hands, and the residue thereof, shall be delivered by him to the executor or administrator so allowed or appointed, without any abatement or deduction for commissions, or for any other charges than such as shall have been so allowed and taxed.

If there shall be no monies or effects of the deceased in the hands of the public administrator, to pay such expenses, the same, after being allowed and taxed, shall be paid by the executor or administrator so appointed, in preference to all other debts or claims, except funeral charges, and the public administrator may maintain an action therefor in his own name. If no executor be allowed, and no letters testamentary, or

of administration, be granted by the surrogate, to any other person, at the time specified for hearing the application, or at such other times as shall have been appointed, then, unless it appear that letters testamentary, or of administration, have already been granted on such estate, the surrogate shall grant letters of administration thereon, with the will annexed, or otherwise, as the case may require, to the public administrator; briefly stating that administration of the goods, chattels, credits and effects of the deceased, has been granted to him according to law; which letters, the record thereof, and a transcript of such record, duly certified, shall be conclusive evidence of the authority of the said public administrator, in all cases in which he is authorised by law to act.

If the property of any intestate, of which the public administrator is authorised to take charge, be worth a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, he shall immediately give notice, briefly stating that the effects of the deceased, naming him, with his addition, in the hands of the public administrator, will be administered and disposed of by him according to law, unless the same be claimed by some lawful executor or administrator of the deceased, by a certain day to be specified in such notice, not less than thirty days from the service, or first publication thereof, as herein directed.

Such notice shall be personally served on the widow, and every relative of the deceased who shall be residing in the city of New-York, if any can be found; and if none be found, and in all cases where such personal service shall not have been made, the notice shall be published once in each week, for four weeks, in a newspaper printed in the city of New-York.

If, at the time appointed in such notice, no claim to the effects of the deceased shall have been made by any lawful executor or administrator, the public administrator shall make and file in the office of the surrogate of the city and county of New-York, an affidavit, stating the value of the property and effects of the deceased, the service and publication of the notice by him, as above directed, and that no claim has

been made according to law, and that he has taken upon himself the administration of the estate of the deceased.

Upon filing such affidavit, the public administrator shall be vested with all the rights and powers, and subject to all the duties of an administrator of the estate of the deceased, in the same manner as if letters of administration had been granted. Such affidavit, and a duly certified copy thereof, shall be presumptive evidence of the facts therein contained, and that administration of the estate of the deceased, has been committed to the public administrator according to law.

Until letters of administration shall be granted to the public administrator, or until an affidavit shall be filed by him as above directed, he shall not proceed in the administration of any estate, further than to pay funeral charges of the deceased, to take possession of, and secure, his effects, as herein before authorised, to sell such of them as shall be perishable, and to defray the expenses of such proceedings, and of serving and publishing notices, and of taking out letters of administration.

Wherever the deceased, of whose estate the public administrator is authorised to take charge, shall be a foreigner, and shall not have become naturalized, or taken any steps for that purpose, it shall be the duty of the public administrator, to serve upon the consul of the nation to which the deceased belonged, if any there be in the city of New-York, the notice of his intention to apply for letters of administration, and of his intention to administer, herein before specified, in the same manner as they are herein directed to be served, upon the widow or relative of the deceased.

If any lawful executor or administrator shall appear to claim the effects of the deceased, at any time before the public administrator becomes vested with the power of administering such effects, he shall, on producing the letters testamentary, or of administration, be entitled to receive the goods and effects of the deceased in the hands of the public administrator, after deducting the charges specified in the

preceding twentieth section, to be allowed and taxed by the surrogate as therein directed.

The powers and authority of the public administrator, in relation to the estate of any deceased person, shall be super

seded in the three following cases:

1. Where letters testamentary shall be granted to any executor of a will of any deceased person, either before or after the public administrator shall have taken letters, or become vested with the powers of an administrator upon such estate.

2. Where any letters of administration of such estate shall have been granted to any other person, before the public administrator became vested with the powers of an administrator, upon the same estate.

3. Where letters of administration shall be granted upon such estate, by any surrogate having jurisdiction, at any time within six months after the public administrator became vested with the powers of an administrator upon such es

tate.

If any relative of the deceased, entitled to administration on his estate, being competent and qualified according to law, shall, within three months after the public administrator has become vested with the powers of an administrator on such estate, apply to the surrogate of New-York for letters of administration, the same shall be granted to him, upon proof to the surrogate that the applicant did not reside in the city of New-York at the time of the death of the intestate; or that residing in the said city, no notice was served on him as herein required.

Upon notice being given to the public administrator, of the granting such letters testamentary, or letters of administration, in either of the cases aforesaid, by producing to him duly attested copies thereof, his powers and authority in relation to such estate shall cease; and he shall deliver over to the executor or administrator so appointed, the property, monies and effects in his hands, belonging to the said estate, after deducting his commissions on the monies received by him, at the rate herein before allowed, and the expenses incurred by

him, in the preceding twentieth section specified, to be allowed and taxed as therein directed.

No suit that shall have been commenced by the public administrator, shall abate on account of his authority having ceased for any cause; but the same may be continued by his successor, or the executor or administrator of the deceased, who shall succeed him in the administration of the estate, in relation to which, such suit shall have been brought.

Whenever the public administrator shall become vested with the right of administering upon any estate as herein provided, he shall possess the following rights and powers, and be subject to the following obligations:

1. He shall have all the rights, powers and authority given by law to any administrator, except so far as the same may be qualified by the succeeding provisions.

2. He may, like any other administrator, sue and be sued; and he may plead the general issue in any action against him, and give the special matter of his defence, in evidence under that plea.

3. He shall make and return an inventory in all cases, in the same manner and within the same time as is required by law of other administrators; and the same proceedings may be had to compel such return.

4. He may sell the personal property of the deceased at public auction, after publishing notice thereof three days, daily, in a newspaper in the city of New-York; but he shall not sell any property exceeding five hundred dollars in value, without having given such notice daily for fourteen days.

5. He shall not sell any public stock, or stock in any incorporated company, unless for the payment of debts, and on the order of the surrogate, to be duly entered in his records.

6. In all cases where the estate of any deceased person in his hands, shall exceed the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, he shall give notice to the creditors of the deceased, to exhibit their claims, by a publication once in each week,