Whenever the amount due for the use of any safe or box in the vaults of any bank or safe deposit company shall not have been paid for one year, such bank or company may, at the expiration of such period, notify the person in whose name such safe or box stands on its books, by a notice in writing in a securely closed, postpaid, registered letter directed to such person at his post-office address as recorded upon the books of said bank or company, that if the amount then due for the use of such safe or box is not paid within 60 days from the date of such notice, said bank or company will then cause such safe or box to be opened in the manner provided. At the expiration of 60 days after the mailing of said notice, said bank or company may then cause such safe or box to be opened in the presence of any officer or branch manager of said bank or company, and of a notary public not an officer or in the employ of said bank or company, and the contents of said safe or box shall then be sealed up by such notary public in a package and a certificate of such sealing shall be indorsed thereon, signed by such notary and attested by his seal, and said package shall be distinctly marked with the name and address of the person in whose name such safe or box stands upon the books of said bank or company, and the estimated value thereof. Said package shall then be placed in one of the general safes or boxes of said bank or company, and shall be held subject to redemption by the owner thereof, who shall be required to pay the rent due for said safe or box and all costs and damages attending the opening thereof, together with reasonable charges for the custody of said package by said bank or company, and said bank or company shall have a lien upon said package to secure the payment of such rent, damages and charges.

The contents of an opened safe or box, if unclaimed, must be disposed of according to Title 33, chapter 45. [PL 2019, c. 498, §5 (AMD).]