The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed, out of the sums covered into the Czechoslovakian Claims Fund, to make payments on account of awards certified by the Commission pursuant to this subchapter as follows and in the following order of priority:

(1) Payment in the amount of $1,000 or in the amount of the award, whichever is less.

(2) Thereafter, payments from time to time on account of the unpaid balance of each remaining award made pursuant to this subchapter which shall bear to such unpaid balance the same proportion as the total amount in the fund available for distribution at the time such payments are made bears to the aggregate unpaid balance of all such awards.

Such payments, and applications for such payments, shall be made in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe.

For the purpose of making any such payments, an “award” shall be deemed to mean the aggregate of all awards certified in favor of the same claimant.

If any person to whom any payment is to be made pursuant to this subchapter is deceased or is under a legal disability, payment shall be made to his legal representative, except that if any payment to be made is not over $1,000 and there is no qualified executor or administrator, payment may be made to the person or persons found by the Comptroller General to be entitled thereto, without the necessity of compliance with the requirements of law with respect to the administration of estates.

Subject to the provisions of any claims agreement hereafter concluded between the Governments of Czechoslovakia and the United States, payment of any award pursuant to this subchapter shall not, unless such payment is for the full amount of the claim, as determined by the Commission to be valid, with respect to which the award is made, extinguish such claim, or be construed to have divested any claimant, or the United States on his behalf, of any rights against any foreign government for the unpaid balance of his claim.

(Mar. 10, 1950, ch. 54, title IV, § 413, as added Pub. L. 85–604, § 1, Aug. 8, 1958, 72 Stat. 530.)