Before making a decree for the sale of lands, it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that the personal estate has been exhausted in the payment of bona fide debts, and that the debts or demands for which the sale is sought are justly due and owing either to creditors or to the personal representative for advances out of the personal representative's own means to pay just demands against the estate.
Code 1858, § 2268 (deriv. Acts 1827, ch. 54, § 4; 1831, ch. 22, § 1); Shan., § 4001; Code 1932, § 8214; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 30-604.
Textbooks. Gibson's Suits in Chancery (7th ed., Inman), §§ 434, 439.
Pritchard on Wills and Administration of Estates (4th ed., Phillips and Robinson), §§ 868, 872.
Tennessee Jurisprudence, 25 Tenn. Juris., Witnesses, § 22.