Section 31: Application of purchase money.

The Collector shall apply the purchase money first to the liquidation of all arrears due upon the latest day of payment from the estate or share of an estate sold; and secondly to the liquidation of all outstanding demands debited to the estate or share of an estate in the public accounts of the District; holding the residue, if any, in deposit on account of the late recorded proprietor or proprietors of the estate share of an estate sold or their heirs or representatives to be paid to his or their receipt on demand in the manner following : to wit, in shares proportioned to their recorded interest in the estate or share of an estate sold, if such distinction of shares were recorded, or if not, then as an aggregate sum to the whole body of proprietors upon their joint receipt. And if before payment to the late proprietor or proprietors of any surplus that may remain of the purchase money, the same be claimed by any creditor in satisfaction of a debt, such surplus shall not be payable to such claimant, nor shall it be withheld from the proprietor, except under precept of a Civil Court.