(a) The real estate of persons dying testate or intestate shall, as against the rights of mortgagees or purchasers for value from the heirs or devisees, be forever discharged from the payment of all legal and equitable debts and obligations unless the persons, including minors and insane persons, owning such debts or benefited by said obligations shall within the time allowed by law, but in no event more than two years from the death of the deceased, file in the probate court of the county where said property is located a verified claim showing the nature and amount of said debts and obligations.

Terms Used In Alabama Code 6-2-41

  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • property: includes both real and personal property. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Testate: To die leaving a will.
(b) Wherever there has been no executor or administrator appointed, then the person owning said debt or benefited by said obligation must, within three months after filing said claim, cause letters testamentary or of administration to be issued and proceed to subject said land to said debts or obligations.
(c) This section shall not apply to any lien which is expressly created or reserved in any conveyance which may be duly recorded in the probate court or probate office in the county in which the land is situated so as to give notice of said conveyance, nor to any judgments recorded as authorized.