Duties of executors after expiration of period for lodging claims

(1) On the expiration of the period notified in the Gazette in manner hereinbefore provided, every executor or administrator aforesaid shall forthwith proceed to rank, according to their legal order of preference, all claims of creditors against the deceased or his estate lodged with him, or of the existence of Administration of Estates Act 35 which he knows, and shall pay them in that order of preference as soon as the funds necessary for that purpose have been realised out of the estate. (2) If the proceeds of the estate are found to be insufficient for the payment of all the valid claims of creditors against it, the executor or administrator shall be liable to pay to anyone having a valid claim the amount which that person would have been entitled to receive in respect of his claim if ranked according to the legal order of preference, so far as the executor or administrator has, within the period last-mentioned, or afterwards at any time when he knew of the existence of the claim, paid that amount to any person the payment of whose claim against the deceased or his estate according to the legal order of preference ought to have been postponed until the valid claim aforesaid had been satisfied, reserving always to the executor or administrator recourse against the person to whom payment of his claim was improperly made, provided that– (a) when the notice to creditors aforesaid has been duly published, no creditor claiming against the estate of any deceased person who has not lodged his claim with the executor or administrator within the period aforesaid, or thereafter before the distribution of the estate has been completed, shall in respect of his claim be entitled to recover from any person having a valid claim as a creditor against the estate restitution of any portion of that estate paid to that person in satisfaction of his claim after the expiry of that period and before the claim of the person seeking restitution was lodged with the executor or administrator, although if lodged in due time the last- mentioned claim would, according to the legal order of preference, have been preferred to 36 Administration of Estates Act that of the person to whom payment was previously made; and (b) that creditor shall have no claim against an executor or administrator duly appointed in respect of any distribution aforesaid of the funds of any estate made by him after the expiry of the period aforesaid and before the claim of the creditor was known to the executor or administrator.