Where a suit is pending or a judgment or decree has been rendered in this state in favor of a personal representative, upon a contract made or for a cause of action which accrued in the lifetime of the decedent, the administrator de bonis non of such decedent may sue forth a scire facias to have execution upon such judgment or decree, or to revive and prosecute to judgment or decree the suit so pending, if the personal representative who brought it could have maintained the same.
W. Va. Code § 44-1-25