GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1997 SESSION

S.L. 1997-81
HOUSE BILL 191

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE FILING AND REGISTRY OF CERTIFIED COPIES OF OUT-OF-STATE CUSTODY DECREES AND FOR THE VALIDATION OF CERTIFIED COPIES OF WILLS RECORDED WITHOUT PROBATE.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 50A-15 reads as rewritten:
"§ 50A-15.  Filing and enforcement of custody decree of another state. 
(a)	An exemplified copy or a certified true copy of a custody decree of another state may be filed in the office of the clerk of any superior court of this State. The clerk shall treat the decree in the same manner as a custody decree of a court of this State. A custody decree so filed has the same effect and shall be enforced in like manner as a custody decree rendered by a court of this State.
(b)	A person violating a custody decree of another state which makes it necessary to enforce the decree in this State may be required to pay necessary travel and other expenses, including attorneys' fees, incurred by the party entitled to the custody or such party's witnesses."
Section 2.  G.S. 50A-16 reads as rewritten:
"§ 50A-16.  Registry of out-of-state custody decrees and proceedings.
The clerk of each superior court shall maintain a registry in which the clerk shall enter the following:
(1)	Exemplified and certified true copies of custody decrees of other states received for filing;
(2)	Communications as to the pendency of custody proceedings in other states;
(3)	Communications concerning a finding of inconvenient forum by a court of another state; and
(4)	Other communications or documents concerning custody proceedings in another state which may affect the jurisdiction of a court of this State or the disposition to be made by it in a custody proceeding."
Section 3.  G.S. 31-30 reads as rewritten:
"§ 31-30.  Validation of wills recorded without probate by subscribing witnesses.
In all cases where wills and testaments were executed prior to the first day of January, 1875, and which appear as recorded in the record of last wills and testaments to have had two or more witnesses  thereto, and such last wills and testaments were admitted to probate and recorded in the record of wills in the proper county in this State prior to the first day of January, 1888, without having been duly proven as provided by law, and such wills were presented to the clerk  of the superior court in any county in this State where the makers of said wills owned property, and where the makers of such wills lived and died, and were by such clerks recorded in the record of wills for his county, said wills and testaments or exemplified copies or certified true copies thereof, so recorded, if otherwise sufficient, shall have the effect to pass the title to real or personal property, or both, therein devised and bequeathed, to the same extent and as completely as if the execution thereof had been duly proven by the two subscribing witnesses thereto in the manner provided by law of this State. Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent such wills from being impeached for fraud."
Section 4.  This act becomes effective October 1, 1997.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 15th day of May, 1997.
s/	Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

s/	Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives

s/	James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor

Approved 5:47 p.m. this 22nd day of May, 1997