N.D. Cent. Code § 34-01-12
For the purposes of this section, the word "employer" includes every person, firm, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, the state of North Dakota, and all municipal corporations. If at the time of the death of any person, the person's employer is indebted to the person for work, labor, or services performed, and no executor or administrator of the person's estate has been appointed, such employer, upon the request of the surviving spouse, or, if there is no surviving spouse, then upon the request of the person's next eligible heir or heirs as determined by section 30.1-04-03, forthwith shall pay said indebtedness to the said surviving spouse or heirs. The employer shall require proof of the claimant's or claimants' relationship to the decedent by affidavit and shall require claimant or claimants to acknowledge receipt of such payment in writing. Any payments made by an employer pursuant to the provisions of this section operate as a full and complete discharge of the employer's indebtedness to the extent of such payment, and no employer thereafter may be liable therefor to the decedent's estate or the decedent's executor or administrator thereafter appointed. Any amount so received by a spouse or heirs must be considered in diminution of the allowance provided for by section 30.1-07-02.
N.D.C.C. § 34-01-12