Every person having a claim against a deceased person, whether due or not, who shall not, when notice to creditors has been published as prescribed in this article, have presented his or her claim on or before the sixty-day time period fixed in such notice, or before that time have instituted an action thereon, shall, notwithstanding the same be not barred by some other statute of limitations that is applicable thereto, be barred from recovering such claim of or from the personal representative, or from thereafter setting off the same by way of counterclaim or otherwise against the personal representative in any action whatever; except that if a surplus remain after providing for all claims presented in due time, or on which action shall have been commenced in due time, and such surplus shall not have been distributed by the personal representative to the beneficiaries of the estate, and the claimant prove that he or she had no actual notice of the publication to creditors nor knowledge of the proceedings before the fiduciary supervisor or fiduciary commissioner, such creditor may prove his or her claim by action or suit and have the same allowed out of such surplus; and, in order that such late claims if proved may be provided for, the fiduciary supervisor or fiduciary commissioner shall reopen his or her report if the same has not been returned to the county commission, or if returned shall make and return a supplemental report.
§44-3A-33. When distributees and legatees may be sued on claims; extent of liability; costs.
Every creditor who shall not have presented his claim to the fiduciary or the fiduciary supervisor before distribution of the surplus by the personal representative, or before that time shall not have instituted an action thereon against the personal representative may, if not barred by limitation, bring his action against the distributees and legatees, jointly or severally, at any time within two years after such distribution. But no distributee or legatee shall be required to pay to creditors suing by virtue of this section a greater sum than the value of what was received by him out of the decedent’s estate, nor shall any distributee or legatee be required to pay to any one creditor a greater proportion of such creditor’s debt than the value of what was received by such distributee or legatee bears to the total estate distributed. A creditor suing by virtue of this section shall not recover against such distributees and legatees the costs of his action.