13-1-25 - Presumptions as to status of military and naval personnel or federal civilian employees.
§ 13-1-25. Presumptions as to status of military and naval personnel or federal civilian employees.
(1) A written finding of presumed death, made by any officer or employee of the United States authorized to make such finding, pursuant to federal law (5 USC §§ 5561-5568; 37 USC §§ 551-558), as now or hereafter amended, or a duly certified copy of such finding, shall be received in any court, office or other place in this state as prima facie evidence of the death of the person therein found to be dead, and the date, circumstances and place of his disappearance.
(2) An official written report or record, or duly certified copy thereof, that a person is missing, missing in action, interned in a neutral country, or beleaguered, besieged, or captured by an enemy, or is dead, or is alive, made by any officer or employee of the United States authorized by the laws referred to in subsection (1) of this section or by any other law of the United States to make same, shall be received in any court, office or other place in this state as prima facie evidence that such person is missing, missing in action, interned in a neutral country, or beleaguered, besieged, or captured by an enemy, or is dead, or is alive, as the case may be.
(3) For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2) of this section any finding, report or record, or duly certified copy thereof, purporting to have been signed by such an officer or employee of the United States as is described in said subsections shall prima facie be deemed to have been signed and issued by such an officer or employee pursuant to law, and the person signing same shall prima facie be deemed to have acted within the scope of his authority. If a copy purports to have been certified by a person authorized by law to certify the same, such certified copy shall be prima facie evidence of his authority so to certify.
Sources: Codes, 1942, § 1698-01; Laws, 1946, ch. 353 §§ 1-3.