The state may enforce its right to any personal property to which it is entitled under the provisions of this chapter by action against any person into whose possession the same may come; and, if any personal representative pays any money or delivers any property to which the state is, under the provisions of this chapter, entitled, to any person not authorized to receive the same, such personal representative and his sureties are liable to the state for the amount of such money or value of such property and interest thereon from the time of such payment or delivery.
Ala. Code § 43-6-8 (1975)