Jersey Law
18/1993
WILLS AND
SUCCESSIONS (JERSEY) LAW 1993
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ARRANGEMENT OF ARTICLES
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PART I
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PRELIMINARY
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1.
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Interpretation
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PART II
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SUCCESSION ON INTESTACY
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2.
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“Représentation”
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3.
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Right of
maternal relatives in collateral succession
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4.
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Heirs
take as tenants in common
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PART III
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RIGHTS OF SURVIVING SPOUSE AND
ISSUE
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5.
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Right of
surviving spouse to life enjoyment of matrimonial home
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6.
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Devolution
of immovable estate on intestacy
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7.
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Devolution
of movable estate
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8.
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Spouses
living apart
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PART IV
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COMMORIENTES
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9.
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Declaration
of survivorship or simultaneous death
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10.
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Effect
of declaration of simultaneous death
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11.
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Testamentary
direction as to survivorship
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PART V
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ABOLITION OF CERTAIN RULES OF
CUSTOMARY LAW
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12.
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Abolition of année de jouissance
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13.
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Concubines
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14.
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Right of
principal heir to demand possession of movable estate
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PART VI
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MISCELLANEOUS
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15.
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Costs of
administration
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16.
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Testamentary
dispositions and appointments revoked by divorce
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17.
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Will
made by a minor
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18.
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Liability
of heir, devisee or legatee
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19.
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Non-discrimination
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20.
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Rights
of purchaser for value
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21.
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Administration
of estates of persons dying before this Law came into force
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22.
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Manorial
and other rights
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23.
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Amendment of “Loi (1851) sur les testaments
d’immeubles”
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24.
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Repeals
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25.
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Citation
and commencement
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FIRST
SCHEDULE – Amendment of “Loi (1851) sur les testaments
d’immeubles”
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SECOND
SCHEDULE – Enactments repealed
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WILLS AND
SUCCESSIONS (JERSEY) LAW 1993
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A LAW to
amend the law relating to inheritance, wills of movable and immovable estate,
and the administration of estates of deceased persons, to abolish certain rules
of customary law, and for other purposes connected therewith sanctioned by
Order of Her Majesty in Council of the
12th day of may 1993
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(Registered on the
25th day of June 1993)
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STATES OF JERSEY
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The 27th day of October 1992
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THE
STATES, subject to
the sanction of Her Most Excellent Majesty in Council, have adopted the
following Law –
PART I
PRELIMINARY
ARTICLE 1
Interpretation
(1) In
this Law, unless the context otherwise requires –
“the
Court” means the Royal Court;
“immovable
estate” means immovable estate situate in the Island;
“intestacy”
includes partial intestacy and “intestate” shall be construed
accordingly;
“lease”
includes a sub-lease;
“matrimonial
home” means a dwelling place situate in the Island occupied as their
principal residence by a person and that person’s spouse which is –
(a) a bien-fonds owned by
that person or by that person and that person’s spouse as tenants in
common;
(b) held under a lease for
a term of years exceeding at its commencement nine years under which that
person is the tenant or that person and that person’s spouse are the
tenants; or
(c) a bien-fonds owned, or
held under a lease for a term of years exceeding at its commencement nine
years, by a corporation of which that person holds or that person and that
person’s spouse hold –
(i) all the issued
and outstanding shares; or
(ii) a share or shares the
holding of which, whether or not coupled with the grant of a lease or licence,
confers an exclusive right to occupy the dwelling place;
“tenant”
includes a sub-tenant and a transferee of the tenant’s interest under a
lease;
“usufruit
of the matrimonial home” includes a usufruit of the interest of a
deceased spouse in a matrimonial home where in relation to the dwelling place
constituting the matrimonial home the deceased spouse and the surviving spouse
were –
(a) the owners of a
bien-fonds as tenants in common;
(b) the tenants under a
lease; or
(c) the holders of a share
or shares in a corporation owning the dwelling place or holding it as tenant
under a lease.
(2) A
reference in this Law to an Article by number only, and without further
identification, is a reference to the Article of that number in this Law.
(3) A
reference in an Article of this Law to a paragraph or sub-paragraph by number
or letter only, and without further identification, is a reference to the
paragraph or sub-paragraph of that number or letter contained in the Article in
which that reference occurs.
(4) Unless
the context otherwise requires, where this Law refers to an enactment, the
reference is to that enactment as amended from time to time, and includes a
reference to that enactment as extended or applied by or under another
enactment including any other provision of that enactment.
PART II
SUCCESSION ON INTESTACY
ARTICLE 2
“Représentation”
In every
collateral succession on intestacy, whether to movable estate or acquêts, any surviving descendant
of a deceased brother, sister, uncle or aunt, whether of the whole or the half
blood, shall be entitled to a right of représentation
of such brother or sister or uncle or aunt, the division being par souche.
ARTICLE 3
Right of maternal
relatives in collateral succession
In every
collateral succession on intestacy, whether to movable or immovable estate, the
rule by which the paternal side excludes the maternal side in equality of
degree is abolished.
ARTICLE 4
Heirs take as
tenants in common
(1) Subject
to the provisions of this Law and subject to the operation of the right of représentation, the immovable
estate as to which a person dies intestate shall devolve in equal undivided
shares between the heirs at law and such heirs shall take as tenants in common
(en parts égales en indivis pour
eux et leurs hoirs respectifs).
(2) In
every collateral succession of immovable estate, relatives of the half blood
whether consanguin or utérin shall each have a half
share and relatives of the whole blood shall each have a whole share.
PART III
RIGHTS
OF SURVIVING SPOUSE AND ISSUE
ARTICLE 5
Right of
surviving spouse to life enjoyment of matrimonial home
(1) Unless
under the provisions of Article 6 or 7 the surviving spouse is entitled
absolutely to the matrimonial home and subject to the provisions of Article 8,
where a spouse dies intestate as to the matrimonial home, the surviving spouse
shall be entitled to a usufruit of
the matrimonial home with the usual rights and obligations of a usufruitier.
(2) Notwithstanding
any provision in a lease requiring consent to the transfer of such lease, the
surviving spouse shall not require such consent to take a transfer of the lease
of demised premises in pursuance of paragraph (1).
ARTICLE 6
Devolution of
immovable estate on intestacy
(1) Subject
to the provisions of Article 8, where a spouse dies intestate as to immovable
estate the surviving spouse shall be entitled as follows –
(a) where there is no issue
of the deceased spouse, to the whole of the immovable estate;
(b) where the deceased
spouse leaves issue, to an equal share with each of the surviving children of
the deceased spouse and each child who has predeceased the deceased spouse
leaving issue surviving the deceased spouse.
(2) For
the purposes of sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph (1), the issue of a deceased
child shall take the deceased child’s share by représentation.
(3) Where
a spouse dies intestate as to immovable estate the surviving spouse shall not
be entitled to dower or viduité
in any immovable estate as to which the deceased spouse died intestate.
ARTICLE 7
Devolution of
movable estate
(1) Subject
to the provisions of Article 8, where a spouse dies intestate as to movable
estate it shall devolve as follows –
(a) where the deceased
spouse leaves a surviving spouse but no issue, the surviving spouse shall take
the whole of the net movable estate;
(b) where the deceased
spouse leaves a surviving spouse and issue, the surviving spouse shall be
entitled to –
(i) the household effects;
(ii) other movable estate to
a value of thirty thousand pounds; and
(iii) one-half of the rest of the
net movable estate;
and the issue
shall take the other half of the rest of the net movable estate.
(2) Subject
to the provisions of Article 8, where a person dies testate as to movable
estate and survived by –
(a) a spouse but no issue,
the surviving spouse shall be entitled to claim as légitime –
(i) the household
effects; and
(ii) two-thirds of the rest
of the net movable estate;
(b) a spouse and issue
–
(i) the surviving
spouse shall be entitled to claim as légitime
the household effects and one-third of the rest of the net movable estate; and
(ii) the issue shall be
entitled to claim as légitime
one-third of the rest of the net movable estate;
(c) issue but no spouse,
the issue shall be entitled to claim as légitime
two-thirds of the net movable estate.
(3) For
the purposes of this Article, the division of movable estate among issue shall
be par souche.
(4) For
the purposes of this Article “household effects” means articles of
household or personal use or ornament normally situate in or around the
matrimonial home, but excludes –
(a) any motor vehicle;
(b) any article used wholly
or principally for business purposes;
(c) money or securities for
money;
(d) any single article or
any single group of similar or related articles forming a set having in either
case a value over ten thousand pounds; and
(e) any article of personal
use or ornament which is the subject of a specific bequest under the will of
the deceased spouse.
(5) For
the purposes of this Article, moneys received under a policy of insurance taken
out by the deceased spouse on the deceased spouse’s life for the sole
purpose of repaying or reducing indebtedness which is secured either by a simple
conventional hypothec or a judicial hypothec against immovable property owned
by the deceased spouse alone or with another or others, shall not be deemed to
form part of the net movable estate to the extent that they are used to repay
or reduce such indebtedness or interest accruing thereon to the date of
repayment.
(6) The
States may from time to time make Regulations altering the sums specified in
–
(a) clause (ii) of
sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph (1);
(b) sub-paragraph (d) of
paragraph (4).
ARTICLE 8
Spouses living
apart
(1) The
provisions of Articles 5, 6 and 7 operating to confer property or any usufruit, interest, right or title in or
to property on a surviving spouse (in this Article referred to as “the
surviving spouse provisions”) shall not apply where –
(a) at the date of the
death of the deceased spouse the deceased spouse and the surviving spouse were
not residing together; and
(b) either –
(i) the surviving
spouse had deserted the deceased spouse without cause and such desertion was
continuing; or
(ii) a decree of judicial
separation with respect to the surviving spouse had been granted by a court to
the deceased spouse.
(2) Where,
by operation of the provisions of paragraph (1), the surviving spouse
provisions do not apply to a surviving spouse, any property of the deceased
spouse to which the surviving spouse provisions would otherwise have applied
shall devolve as if the surviving spouse had died immediately before the
deceased spouse.
PART IV
COMMORIENTES
ARTICLE 9
Declaration of
survivorship or simultaneous death
(1) Where
two or more persons appear to have died in circumstances rendering it uncertain
which of them survived the other or others, any interested person may apply to
the Court for an order declaring that the persons who appear to have died in
such circumstances shall be deemed to have died sumultaneously or, as the case
may be, declaring that one or more of those persons survived another or others.
(2) Where
any application is made under this Article –
(a) notice thereof shall be
given in such manner as the Court may direct, and any other interested person
may intervene and be heard;
(b) the Court shall examine
the evidence produced by the applicant and by any person intervening and may
order such other persons to be convened, such additional evidence to be heard
and such further enquiries to be made as the Court thinks necessary.
(3) In
any proceedings under this Article –
(a) the onus of proving the
survivorship or predecease of any person shall rest on the party asserting it;
(b) in the absence of
corroborating evidence, the Court shall not be bound to accept the accuracy of
any statement specifying the time of death of a deceased person contained in
any certificate issued, or register of deaths maintained, by any person or authority,
or in any report of an inquest or other official inquiry.
(4) On
any application for an order under this Article the Court shall not make an
order in respect of any deceased person unless it is satisfied that –
(a) at the time of death
the deceased person was domiciled in the Island; or
(b) at the time of death
the deceased person owned, or was entitled to an interest in, movable or
immovable property situate in the Island; or
(c) the right of the
deceased person to any movable or immovable property or to any interest therein
was, or could have been, affected by the death of another person in respect of
whom the Court has power to make an order on an application under this Article.
(5) If
at the conclusion of proceedings under this Article the Court is of the opinion
that the sequence in which some or all of the deceased persons named in the
application died has not been established beyond reasonable doubt, the Court
shall make an order declaring that such persons shall be deemed to have died
simultaneously.
(6) If
at the conclusion of proceedings under this Article the Court is satisfied
beyond reasonable doubt that a deceased person named in the application
survived another deceased person therein named for any period of time, the
Court may make an order declaring that the one survived the other.
(7) An
order made under paragraph (5) or (6) shall be binding on all persons for all
purposes affecting the title to –
(a) the immovable estate
situate in the Island of a deceased person named in the order who died
domiciled in the Island or elsewhere;
(b) the movable estate
wherever situate of a deceased person named in the order who died domiciled in
the Island;
(c) the movable estate
situate in the Island of a deceased person named in the order who died domiciled
outside the Island where the devolution of such movable estate is not governed
by the law of any other country or falls to be governed by the law of the
Island by virtue of the law of any other country, whether by application of the
doctrine of renvoi or otherwise.
ARTICLE 10
Effect of
declaration of simultaneous death
(1) Where
the Court has made an order under paragraph (5) of Article 9 the estate of any
deceased person named in the order shall, subject to the provisions of this
Article, be held or distributed in the way that it would have been had no other
deceased person named in the order survived that deceased person.
(2) Where
deceased persons named in an order made under paragraph (5) of Article 9 owned
property jointly, their joint ownership shall, subject to any order of the
Court, be deemed to have become ownership in common in equal shares at the time
of their decease:
Provided that
this paragraph –
(a) shall not apply in any
case where deceased persons named in the order owned property jointly with
another person who survived them;
(b) shall not be construed
as derogating from the rule of customary law relating to avancement de succession.
(3) Where
a will contains a gift which is to take effect only in the event of some person
having predeceased the testator, the gift shall not fail solely by reason that
the Court had made an order declaring that the testator and such person shall
be deemed to have died simultaneously, but it shall take effect in the same
manner as if such person had predeceased the testator.
(4) An
order made by the Court declaring that an intestate and his heir shall be
deemed to have died simultaneously shall not deprive any descendant of the heir
of any right to represent the heir in the distribution of the estate of the
intestate which the descendant would have had if the heir had predeceased the
intestate:
Provided that if
the heir leaves a surviving spouse, that spouse shall have the same rights in
respect of the immovable estate of the heir as that spouse would have had if
the heir had died after the death of the intestate.
ARTICLE 11
Testamentary
direction as to survivorship
Nothing in this
Part of this Law shall be construed as derogating from the right of a testator
by express provision in a will to direct that if two or more persons named in
the will shall have died in circumstances rendering uncertain which of them
survived the other or others then one or more of such persons shall be deemed
to have survived the other or others, and in any such case the will shall be
construed without regard to any contrary provisions of this Law.
PART V
ABOLITION
OF CERTAIN RULES OF CUSTOMARY LAW
ARTICLE 12
Abolition of année de jouissance
(1) Subject
to paragraph (2), the année de
jouissance is hereby abolished.
(2) Paragraph
(1) shall not affect an entitlement to an année
de jouissance arising in respect of a death which occurred before the
coming into force of this Law.
ARTICLE 13
Concubines
The rule under
customary law that all gifts to a concubine are null is hereby abolished.
ARTICLE 14
Right of
principal heir to demand possession of movable estate
The right under
customary law of the principal heir to interpose and demand possession of the
movable estate from the executor of a deceased person’s will on
depositing with the executor the full amount of the bequests made under the
will, together with the debts and other charges of the administration, is
hereby abolished.
PART VI
MISCELLANEOUS
ARTICLE 15
Costs of
administration
The costs of
administration of the movable estate of a deceased person shall be paid out of
the gross movable estate unless his will provides otherwise.
ARTICLE 16
Testamentary
dispositions and appointments revoked by divorce
If a will
contains a devise, legacy or other gift in favour of the testator’s spouse
or appoints the testator’s spouse as executor of the will, such devise,
legacy, other gift or appointment shall, subject to any provision to the
contrary contained in the will, be revoked, if after the execution of the will
the marriage of the testator and the testator’s spouse is dissolved or
annulled.
ARTICLE 17
Will made by a
minor
No will made by a
person under the age of majority shall be invalid by reason only of that fact
if such person is married at the time of the execution of such will.
ARTICLE 18
Liability of
heir, devisee or legatee
The liability of
an heir to, or a legatee or devisee of, the movable or immovable estate of a
deceased person for the debts due by such deceased person shall in no case
exceed the value of the estate or part of the estate accruing to that heir,
legatee or devisee.
ARTICLE 19
Non-discrimination
Notwithstanding
any rule of law or enactment to the contrary, the estate, whether movable or
immovable, of a person dying testate or intestate shall devolve without regard
to the nationality of –
(a) the person so dying;
(b) any beneficiary; or
(c) any person through whom
(“à la représentation
de laquelle”) a beneficiary claims.
ARTICLE 20
Rights of
purchaser for value
No bona fide
purchaser for value of any movable or immovable estate shall be disturbed in
ownership by the registration of a will subsequent to the expiration of a year
and a day from the date of death of the testator.
ARTICLE 21
Administration of
estates of persons dying before this Law came into force
Notwithstanding
the provisions of this Law, or any repeal effected thereby, the estate of a
person who has died before the coming into force of this Law shall continue to
be administered in accordance with the law and procedure in force prior to the
coming into force of this Law.
ARTICLE 22
Manorial and
other rights
Nothing in this
Law shall affect the privilèges,
amortissements and préciputs
which are by custom attached to certain houses and manors in the Island.
ARTICLE 23
Amendment of “Loi (1851) sur les testaments
d’immeubles”
The “Loi
(1851) sur les testaments d’immeubles” shall be amended in the manner set
out in the First Schedule to this Law.
ARTICLE 24
Repeals
The enactments
specified in the first column of the Second Schedule to this Law are repealed
to the extent indicated in the second column of that Schedule.
ARTICLE 25
Citation and commencement
(1) This
Law may be cited as the Wills and Successions (Jersey) Law 1993.
(2) This
Law shall come into force on such day or days as the States may by Act appoint
and different days may be appointed for different purposes or different
provisions of the Law.
C.M. NEWCOMBE
Deputy Greffier
of the States
FIRST SCHEDULE
(Article 23)
Amendment of “Loi (1851) sur les testaments
d’immeubles”
For Article 1 of
the “Loi (1851) sur les testaments d’immeubles” there shall be substituted the
following Article –
“ARTICLE
1
Toute personne ayant capacité pour faire un
testament de biens-meubles pourra disposer par testament de ses
immeubles.”.
SECOND SCHEDULE
(Article 24)
Enactments
repealed
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(1)
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(2)
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Title of enactment
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Extent of repeal
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“Loi (1834) sur le retrait
foncier”
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The whole Law
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“Loi (1851) au sujet du droit de
succession”
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The whole Law
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“Loi (1851) sur les testaments
d’immeubles”
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Articles 5 and 10
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“Loi (1862) relative au partage
d’héritages”
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Articles 1 and 4
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“Loi (1873) (Amendement) au sujet du
droit de succession”
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The whole Law
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“Loi (1880) sur la
propriété foncière”
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In the last sentence of Article 11 the semi-colon following the
word “nom” and all the words thereafter
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“Loi (1891) sur le partage
d’héritages”
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The whole Law
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“Loi (1926) sur les héritages
propres”
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The whole Law
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European Communities (Jersey) Law 1973
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Paragraph (2) of Article 6
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