CHAPTER 50
HB 138-FN – FINAL VERSION
2005 SESSION
05/09
HOUSE BILL 138-FN
COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
This bill requires the state medical examiner to inventory and account for any property taken from a decedent and to provide the inventory to the next of kin.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
05-0375
05/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five
AN ACT requiring medical examiners to inventory and account for property taken from decedents.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
50:1 New Section; Office of the Chief Medical Examiner; Inventory and Accounting of Decedent’s Property. Amend RSA 611-A by inserting after section 8 the following new section:
611-A:8-a Inventory and Accounting of Decedent’s Property. Whenever the chief medical examiner, deputy chief medical examiner, chief forensic investigator, deputy medical examiner, or assistant deputy medical examiner in the course of his or her duties assumes custody of any cash, drugs, or other personal property belonging or believed to belong to a decedent, he or she shall fill out an inventory on a form prescribed by the chief medical examiner. The inventory shall list the total of any cash received and a complete description of any other items, including quantity and any identifying information. The original inventory form shall be retained on file for a period of at least 5 years by the office of the chief medical examiner, together with the case file. A copy of the inventory form shall be forwarded to the next of kin of the decedent, if that person’s identity is known, either directly or through the funeral home to which the decedent’s body is released.
50:2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2006.
(Approved: May 23, 2005)
(Effective Date: January 1, 2006)