Section 1121. Commission to be issued if life tenant is without the state

If before or at the time of the presentation of the referee's report  to
  the  court, or, where a referee is not appointed, at any time before the
  final order is made, the party upon whom the  petition  and  notice  are
  served  presents  to the court presumptive proof, by affidavit, that the
  person whose death was in question is, or lately was, at a place certain
  without the state, the court must make an order requiring the petitioner
  to take out a commission, directed to one or more persons residing at or
  near that place, either designated in the order or to be appointed  upon
  a  subsequent  application  for  the  commission,  for  the  purpose  of
  obtaining a view of the person whose death is in question and of  taking
  such testimony respecting his identity as the parties produce. The order
  must  also direct that the proceedings upon the petition be stayed until
  the return of the commission and that the petition  be  dismissed,  with
  costs,  unless  the  petitioner  takes  out the commission within a time
  specified in the order, and diligently procures it to  be  executed  and
  returned at his own expense.