2016 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 34 - Banking, Financial Institutions and Money
CHAPTER 19 - SAFE-DEPOSIT BOXES
Section 34-19-50. Access to box of decedent; removal of contents.

A lessor shall permit the person named in a court order for the purpose, 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 him, 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, manager, or assistant manager of the lessor; and the lessor, if so requested by such person, must deliver:

(1) Any writing purporting to be a will of the decedent to the executor, if one be therein named, otherwise to the court having jurisdiction of the decedent's estate;

(2) Any writing purporting to be a deed to a burial plot or to give burial instructions to the person making the request for a search; and

(3) Any document purporting to be an insurance policy on the life of the decedent to the beneficiary named therein.

No other contents shall be removed, pursuant to this section until an executor or administrator qualifies and makes claim to the contents.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 8-505; 1952 (47) 1932; 1996 Act No. 248, Section 5, eff April 1, 1996.

Effect of Amendment

The 1996 amendment revised this section by deleting the last paragraph respecting removal of contents of safe deposit boxes.