When real estate is held by cotenants, any of whom shall be presumed to be dead under authority of chapter 40 of Title 3A, Administration of Estates–Decedents and Others (s. 3A:40-1 et seq.), and it is not known whether such owner is living, or whether, if dead, he has devised his interest in the real estate, or who are his heirs at law, the other cotenants, or any of them, may institute an action for partition in the superior court in the same manner as if all the owners of the real estate were known.

L.1951 (1st SS), c.344.