West Virginia Code Chapter 41. Wills § 41-5-13. Ancillary administration; Probate or recordation of foreign will

(a) Where a will relative to any personalty or real estate located or situate within this state has been proved or probated outside of this state by another state or jurisdiction within the United States of America, an authenticated copy thereof and the certificate of probate thereof, by such other state or jurisdiction may be offered for probate in this state, in accordance with the provisions of § 41-5-5 or § 41-5-10 of this code, and an ancillary personal representative, executor, or administrator, as the case may be, may be appointed in this state with like effect and with the same powers, authorities, duties, and liabilities as are given to domiciliary personal representatives, executors, and administrators under the provisions of this code.

(b) Where a will, relative only to real estate situate within this state, has been proved or probated outside of this state by another state or jurisdiction within the United States of America and no appointment of an ancillary personal representative, executor, or administrator to administer the real estate within this state is necessary for any proper purpose, an authenticated copy thereof and the certificate of probate thereof may be admitted to record in any county of this state in which the real estate is situate by any person having an interest in the real estate, including a personal representative who has qualified in the other state or jurisdiction.

(c) A document substantially in the following form may be used as the affidavit provided in subsection (b) of this section with the effect as prescribed in this section:

THE COUNTY COMMISSION OF COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA

IN RE: THE ESTATE OF

DOD:

AFFIDAVIT FOR ANCILLARY ADMINISTRATION

OF WEST VIRGINIA REAL ESTATE

WITHOUT APPOINTMENT

(TESTATE)

STATE OF __________,

COUNTY OF __________, to-wit:

I, __________, whose address is , being first duly sworn, upon oath and under penalty of perjury, do depose and say as follows:

(d) When the authenticated copy of the will and the certificate of probate is so offered, as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the county commission, or the clerk thereof in the vacation of the commission, to which or to whom it is offered, shall presume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the will was duly executed and admitted to probate as a will of personalty in the state or country of the testator's domicile, and shall admit the copy to probate as a will of personalty in this state; and if it appears from the copy that the will was proved in the foreign court of probate to have been so executed as to be a valid will of land in this state by the laws thereof, the copy may be admitted to probate as a will of real estate. But any person interested may, within one year from the time the authenticated copy is admitted to record, B and so probated, upon reasonable notice to the parties interested, object to the same and have the order admitting the same to probate in this state set aside, upon due and satisfactory proof that the authenticated copy was not a true copy of the will, or that the probate of the will has been set aside by the court by which it was admitted to probate, or that the probate was improperly made.

(e) Notwithstanding anything in this section to the contrary, where an original will of a nonresident decedent exists but has not been proved or probated outside of this state by another state or jurisdiction within the United States of America because the provisions of the laws of the state or jurisdiction do not require the proof or probate of the will, the original of the will may be offered for probate in this state as provided in subsection (a) of this section or may be admitted to record as provided in subsection (b) of this section.