A. A lessor shall permit the person named in a court order, or if no order has been served upon the lessor, the spouse, a parent, an adult descendant, or a person named as an executor in a copy of a purported will produced by the person, to open and examine the contents of a safe deposit box leased by a decedent, or any documents delivered by a decedent for safekeeping, in the presence of an officer of the lessor. In addition, the lessor, if so requested by such person, shall deliver:
1. Any writing purported to be a will of the decedent to the court having jurisdiction of the decedent's estate according to his or her residence declared in such writing or may, at the option of the bank, be delivered to the person, so long as the bank retains a copy;
2. Any writing purported to be a deed to a burial plot or to give burial instructions to the person making the request for a search;
3. Any document purporting to be an insurance policy on the life of the decedent to the beneficiary named therein; and
4. Any document purporting to be a trust agreement or Declaration of Trust wherein the decedent was the grantor, so long as the bank retains a copy.
B. No other contents shall be removed pursuant to this subsection until an executor or administrator qualifies and makes claim to the contents, except where the safe deposit box was held by the decedent and his or her surviving spouse or any other person as joint tenants, in which case any part of the contents thereof may be removed by such surviving spouse or other surviving joint tenant.
C. All contents of a safe deposit box shall be presumed to belong to the lessee(s) of the safe deposit box, and the lessor may rely on that assumption unless and until it receives a court order to the contrary.
D. The lessor shall be under no duty to conduct an inventory of the contents of the safe deposit box.
Added by Laws 1965, c. 161, § 1308. Amended by Laws 1984, c. 231, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1984; Laws 1993, c. 183, § 23, eff. July 1, 1993; Laws 1996, c. 298, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1996; Laws 1997, c. 111, § 102, eff. July 1, 1997; Laws 2017, c. 53, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2017.
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