Arrangement

A LAW to amend the Wills and Successions (Jersey) Law 1993, to revise the customary law rules of succession, and to make consequential amendments to other enactments.

THE STATES, subject to the sanction of Her Most Excellent Majesty in Council, have adopted the following Law –

“(2)    In this Law, any reference to a ‘child’, ‘heirs at law’, ‘issue’ or ‘relatives’, or to any description of relative, shall be construed in accordance with Article 8C, as it applies by virtue of Article 8B.”.

“Part 3A

equality of succession rights of legitimate and illegitimate issue

8A     Interpretation of Part 3A

In this Part –

‘commencement day’ means the day this Part came into force;

‘disposition’ means a disposition made by –

(a)     a will or codicil; or

(b)     an instrument executed entre vifs which relates to rights of succession;

‘rights of succession’ include the entitlement, according to customary law –

(a)     to apply to reduce a will ad legitimum modum; or

(b)     to a grant as administrator or executor dative.

8B     Application of Part 3A

This Part applies to the estate of a person who dies on or after the commencement day.

8C     Equality of succession rights of legitimate and illegitimate issue

(1)     An illegitimate child shall have the same rights of succession as if he or she were the legitimate issue of his or her parents.

(2)     A person shall have the same rights of succession –

(a)     to the estate of an illegitimate child; or

(b)     to an estate traced through a relationship of which an illegitimate child was the progeny,

as if that child were the legitimate issue of his or her parents.

8D     Construction of dispositions

(1)     This Article applies to a disposition executed on or after the commencement day.

(2)     The disposition shall be construed in accordance with the rights expressed in Article 8C, unless a contrary intention appears.

(3)     Accordingly, in the disposition, ‘child’, ‘issue’, ‘son’ and ‘daughter’ and any similar description, shall be taken to include both legitimate and illegitimate persons of that description, unless the contrary intention appears.

(4)     A disposition executed before the commencement day is not, for the purposes of paragraph (1), to be treated as executed on or after that day by reason only that the will or instrument in which it appears has been confirmed by a codicil or further instrument executed on or after that day.

8E     Presumptions of survivorship relating to illegitimate child

(1)     Unless the contrary is proved, an illegitimate child shall be presumed not to have been survived by his or her father or by any person related to the child only through the child’s father.

(2)     Unless the contrary is proved, for the purposes of obtaining a grant of probate or administration, it shall be presumed that the deceased was not survived by –

(a)     an illegitimate child; or

(b)     any person whose relationship to the deceased is traceable through the birth of an illegitimate child.

8F     Amendment of customary laws

The customary laws of succession are hereby amended so as to confer the rights expressed in Article 8C.

8G     Construction of enactments

Enactments pertaining to rights of succession shall be construed so as to confer the rights expressed in Article 8C.”.

“18A Gamete donors

(1)     Part 3A of the Wills and Successions (Jersey) Law 1993 shall not be construed as conferring rights of succession as if a child were the legitimate issue of a man where –

(a)     the man’s sperm is used for the purposes of medical, surgical or obstetric services provided for the purpose of assisting the child’s mother to carry the child; and

(b)     those services are not received by him and the mother together.

(2)     Paragraph (1) does not affect the operation of Article 20 of the Adoption (Jersey) Law 1961[2] in the event that the child is adopted by the man.

(3)     For the avoidance of doubt, a woman whose ova are used for the purposes of medical, surgical or obstetric services provided for the purpose of assisting another woman to carry a child is not, for the purpose of conferring any rights of succession, to be treated as the mother of the child.

(4)     Paragraph (3) does not affect the operation of Article 20 of the Adoption (Jersey) Law 1961 in the event that the child is adopted by the woman first mentioned in that paragraph.”.

“20A Sale or donation of immovable property

(1)     Where –

(a)     immovable estate has devolved, whether on an intestacy or under a will registered in the Public Registry, on more than one heir at law;

(b)     one or more, but not all, of the heirs at law join in a contract of sale or donation of the estate, or any part of it or any interest in it; and

(c)     the purchaser or donee joins in the contract in good faith, in ignorance of the existence of any heir at law who has not joined in the contract,

title in the estate or part or interest shall pass to the purchaser or donee, as the case may be, as if the contract had been joined in by all of the heirs at law.

(2)     Where title in any immovable estate or interest passes to a purchaser or donee in the circumstances described in paragraph (1), an heir at law who did not join in the contract by virtue of which title passed to the purchaser or donee, shall be entitled to claim his or her proportionate share of the proceeds of sale or, in the case of a donation, of the value of the estate or interest conveyed, from the heir or heirs at law who joined in the contract and any heir at law who has previously made a successful claim under this paragraph.

(3)     A claim under paragraph (2) must be made within the period of 10 years following the date the contract was passed.

(4)     For the purposes of this Article “heir at law” means –

(a)     a person on whom immovable estate has devolved on an intestacy, in accordance with Article 4; or

(b)     a person on whom immovable estate has devolved, under a will registered in the Public Registry, by virtue of being a person of a class described in the will.”.

“(2)    Notwithstanding the repeal of Article 11 of this Law by the Wills and Successions (Amendment) (Jersey) Law 2010[4], that Article shall continue to apply to confer rights of succession in a deceased person’s estate if and to the extent that Part 3A of the Wills and Successions (Jersey) Law 1993 does not, by virtue of Article 8B of that Law, apply to the estate.”.