(a) No executor or administrator may act as such until he files with the court an undertaking in a sum to be determined by the court of not less than the probable value of the estate with one or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by the court, to be void upon condition that he shall faithfully perform the duties of his trust according to law. However, when by the terms of the will a testator expressly declares that no bond shall be required of his executor, such executor may act upon taking an oath to faithfully fulfill his trust without filing the undertaking in this section mentioned. In addition, in the discretion of the court an executor may be permitted to act without bond also upon taking an oath to faithfully fulfill his trust without filing the undertaking in this section mentioned. Such executor or administrator shall be criminally and civilly liable as other executors and administrators for any dereliction of duty.
(b) Whenever the penal sum mentioned in the undertaking prescribed in subsection (a) of this section exceeds $2,000, three or more sureties may become severally liable for portions of the sums if the aggregate sum for which such sureties became liable equals the penal sum required in the undertaking. Where the probable value of the estate is not more than $2,000, the court may, if in its opinion the persons interested in the estate will not be injured thereby, authorize the executor or administrator to file his own undertaking without sureties.
(c) Whenever the amount of an executor's or administrator's undertaking is insufficient, or the sureties therein, or either of them, have become nonresidents of this territory, or are likely to or have become insolvent, the executor or administrator shall be required to give a new and sufficient undertaking. The application for such new undertaking may be made by any heir, legatee, devisee, creditor, or other person interested in the estate, and in the manner prescribed in section 240(b) of this title for the removal of executors and administrators.
(d) Any new undertaking required under subsection (c) of this section, when given and received, shall discharge the sureties in the former undertaking from any liabilities on account of their principal arising from his acts or omissions subsequent thereto. When a new undertaking is ordered, if the executor or administrator fails to comply therewith within five days from the entry thereof, or such further time as the order may prescribe, thenceforward his authority shall cease, and he shall be deemed removed and his letters revoked.