Deputies, appointment, tenure, compensation, powers (first classification counties)

473.770. Deputies, appointment, tenure, compensation, powers (first classification counties) — delegation of duties, certain counties. — 1. Whenever, in the judgment of any public administrator in any county of the first class, it is necessary for the proper and efficient conduct of the business of the public administrator's office that the public administrator appoint any deputies to assist the public administrator in the performance of his or her official duties as public administrator or as executor, administrator, personal representative, guardian, or conservator in any estates wherein the public administrator has been specially appointed, the public administrator may appoint one or more deputies to assist him or her in the performance of his or her duties as public administrator and as executor, administrator, personal representative, guardian, or conservator in the estates wherein the public administrator has been specially appointed. The appointment shall be in writing and shall be filed with the court, and, upon the filing, the court shall issue under its seal a certificate of the appointment for each deputy, stating that the appointee is vested with the powers and duties conferred by this section. The certificate shall be valid for one year from date, unless terminated prior thereto, and shall be renewed from year to year as long as the appointment remains in force, and may be taken as evidence of the authority of the deputy. The appointment and authority of any deputy may at any time be terminated by the public administrator by notice of the termination filed in the court, and upon termination the deputy shall surrender the public administrator's certificate of appointment.

2. In all counties of the first classification not having a charter form of government and containing a portion of a city having a population of three hundred thousand or more inhabitants, the compensation of each such deputy shall be set by the public administrator, with the approval of the governing body of the county, and shall be paid in equal monthly installments out of the county treasury. In all other counties of the first classification the compensation of each such deputy shall be prescribed and paid by the public administrator out of the fees to which he or she is legally entitled, and no part of such compensation shall be paid out of any public funds or assessed as costs or allowed in any estate.

3. Each deputy so appointed shall be authorized to perform such ministerial and nondiscretionary duties as may be delegated to him or her by the public administrator, including:

(1) Assembling, taking into possession, and listing moneys, checks, notes, stocks, bonds and other securities, and all other personal property of any and all estates in the charge of the public administrator;

(2) Depositing all moneys, checks, and other instruments for the payment of money in the bank accounts maintained by the public administrator for the deposit of such funds;

(3) Signing or countersigning any and all checks and other instruments for the payment of moneys out of such bank accounts, in pursuance of general authorization by the public administrator to the bank in which the same are deposited, as long as such authorization remains in effect;

(4) Entering the safe deposit box of any person or decedent whose estate is in the charge of the public administrator and any safe deposit box maintained by the public administrator for the safekeeping of assets in his or her charge, as a deputy of the public administrator, pursuant to general authorization given by the public administrator to the bank or safe deposit company in charge of any such safe deposit box, as long as such deputy-authorization remains in effect, and withdrawing therefrom and depositing therein such assets as may be determined by the public administrator. The bank or safe deposit company shall not be charged with notice or knowledge or any limitation of authority of the authorized deputy, unless specially notified in writing thereof by the public administrator, and may allow the deputy access to the safe deposit box, in the absence of notice, to the full extent allowable to the public administrator in person.

4. The enumeration of the foregoing powers shall not operate as an exclusion of any powers not specifically conferred. No authorized deputy shall exercise any power, other than as prescribed in this section, which shall require the exercise of a discretion enjoined by law to be exercised personally by the executor, administrator, personal representative, guardian, or conservator in charge of the estate to which the discretionary power refers.

5. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections 3 and 4 of this section to the contrary, a public administrator in a county of the first classification having a charter form of government and containing all or part of a city with a population of at least three hundred thousand inhabitants, and a public administrator in any county of the first classification may delegate to any deputy appointed by the public administrator any of the duties of the public administrator enumerated in section 473.743, and sections 475.120, 475.130, and 475.343. Such public administrator may also delegate to a deputy who is a licensed attorney the authority to execute inventories, settlements, surety bonds, pleadings and other documents filed in any court in the name of the public administrator, and the same shall have the force and effect as if executed by the public administrator.