BILL REQ. #: H-0419.1
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Prefiled 12/13/10.
AN ACT Relating to presumed death certificates; amending RCW 70.58.390; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 This act may be known and cited as the Tor
Bilet act of 2011.
Sec. 2 RCW 70.58.390 and 2005 c 365 s 160 are each amended to
read as follows:
A county coroner, medical examiner, or the prosecuting attorney
having jurisdiction may file a certificate of presumed death when the
official filing the certificate determines to the best of the
official's knowledge and belief that there is sufficient circumstantial
evidence to indicate that a person has in fact died in the county or in
waters contiguous to the county and that it is unlikely that the body
will be recovered. The certificate shall recite, to the extent
possible, the date, circumstances, and place of the death, and shall be
the legally accepted fact of death.
In the event that the county in which the death occurred cannot be
determined with certainty, the county coroner, medical examiner, or
prosecuting attorney in the county in which:
(1) The events occurred and in which the decedent was last known to
be alive may file a certificate of presumed death under this section;
or
(2) The decedent was last known to be alive may file a certificate
of presumed death under this section.
The official filing the certificate of presumed death shall file
the certificate with the local registrar of the county where the death
was presumed to have occurred, and thereafter all persons and parties
acting in good faith may rely thereon with acquittance.