(a) Filing suit. — The Escheator, upon personal knowledge or upon receipt of information of any person dying intestate and without heirs or any known kindred who can inherit and hold the intestate property within this State, of which at the time of death such person was seized or possessed, and which has not previously been escheated to the State by order of the Probate Court, shall cause to be filed a suit in the Court of Chancery of the State in the county wherein such property is located (or if located in more than 1 county in any such county) to inquire whether, as shall be alleged, the person has died without heirs or any known kindred who can inherit and hold the estate, and whether such person was, at the time of death, seized or possessed of any and what estate, real or personal, in the county or counties, and also in whose possession the same shall be.

(b) Notice of Court action. — Upon filing suit in the Court of Chancery, the Escheator shall cause to be published at least once a week for 3 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county or counties wherein such property is located, notice that the State has filed suit in the Court of Chancery to secure an order that the decedent’s property has escheated to the State due to failure of heirs or next of kin qualified to inherit such property.

Said notice shall invite any person having a valid claim to the intestate property of the decedent to file written notice of such claim with the Court of Chancery within 30 days of the date of the third and final publication notice. The Escheator shall also cause similar notice to be posted at the site of any real property the decedent may have owned, and give similar notice by registered mail to all persons known to the Escheator to be in actual possession of the decedent’s property.

Code 1852, § 1590; Code 1915, § 126; Code 1935, § 115; 42 Del. Laws, c. 57, § 1; 12 Del. C. 1953, § 1103; 60 Del. Laws, c. 292, § 1; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1.