Section 58-1-8 - Payment from account when no executor or administrator has qualified. - New Mexico Statutes

58-1-8. Payment from account when no executor or administrator has qualified.

A.     Where no executor or administrator of a deceased depositor has qualified and given notice of his qualifications to the bank, it may in its discretion and at any time after the death of the depositor pay out of all accounts maintained with it by him in his individual capacity all sums which do not exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000) in the aggregate:   

(1)     to the surviving spouse; or   

(2)     if there is no surviving spouse then to the surviving next of kin, of the closest degree of lineal consanguinity.   

B.     A bank may in its discretion and at any time after sixty days from the death of a depositor, whose residence address according to the books of the bank is outside this state, pay the balance of his accounts, not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000) in the aggregate, to an executor or administrator who has qualified in another state unless the bank has received written notice of the appointment of an executor or administrator in this state.   

C.     No bank shall be liable for damage, penalty, tax or claims of creditors of the estate by reason of any payment or refusal to pay made pursuant to this section.