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Law of Succession PDF

301 Pages·1997·25.392 MB·English
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Macmillan Law Masters Law of Succession Macmillan Law Masters Law Series Editor Marise Cremona Basic English Law W. T. Major Business Law Stephen Judge Company Law (2nd edn) Janet Dine Constitutional and Administrative Law (2nd edn) John Alder Contract Law (2nd edn) Ewan McKendrick Conveyancing (2nd edn) Priscilla Sarton Criminal Law Marise Cremona Employment Law (2nd edn) Deborah J. Lockton Family Law Kate Stanley Land Law (2nd edn) Kate Green Landlord and Tenant Law (2nd edn) Margaret Wilkie and Godfrey Cole Law of the European Union (2nd edn) Josephine Shaw Law of Succession Catherine Rendell Law of Trusts Patrick McLoughlin and Catherine Rendell Legal Method (2nd edn) Ian McLeod Torts Alastair Mullis and Ken Oliphant Law of Succession Catherine Rendell Senior Lecturer in Law University of Hertfordshire Law series editor: Marise Cremona Senior Fellow, Centre for Commercial Law Studies Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London ~ MACMILlAN © Catherine Rendell 1997 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1997 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2l 6XS and London. Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-61735-9 ISBN 978-1-349-13510-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13510-3 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 Copy-edited and typeset by Povey-Edmondson Okehampton and Rochdale, England v Contents Preface IX Table of Cases X Table of Statutes xix Table of Rules and Orders XXVI Part I THE LAW RELATING TO WILLS 1 Nature and function of wills 3 1.1 Nature of a will 3 1.2 Functions of a will 6 1.3 Property passing on death other than by a will 10 1.4 Contracts to create a will; proprietary estoppel 16 1.5 Conditional, joint and mutual wills 18 1.6 Living wills 23 2 The creation of a valid wiD 27 2.1 Capacity to make a valid will 27 2.2 Knowledge and approval 33 2.3 Formal requirements for the creation of a will 38 2.4 The doctrine of incorporation by reference 47 2.5 Privileged wills 49 3 Revocation, alteration, republication and revival of wins 54 3.1 Express revocation 54 3.2 Implied revocation 56 3.3 Revocation by destruction 57 3.4 Doctrine of conditional revocation 60 3.5 Revocation by marriage 61 3.6 Revocation by divorce 63 3.7 Alteration of wills and codicils 65 3.8 Revival and republication of wills 69 vi Contents 4 Gifts by will and their failure 75 4.1 Types of gifts 75 4.2 Doctrine of ademption 77 4.3 Doctrine of lapse 80 4.4 Commorientes 84 4.5 Mistake, fraud and undue influence 87 4.6 Uncertainty 87 4.7 Beneficiary or spouse of beneficiary witnessing the will 88 4.8 Forfeiture 89 4.9 Perpetuity 90 4.10 Private purpose trusts 91 5 Construction of wills 95 5.1 General principles 95 5.2 Admissibility of evidence 99 5.3 Ascertaining the subject matter of gifts 102 5.4 Ascertaining the beneficiaries 104 5.5 The class closing rules 107 Part II INTESTACY 6 Total and partial intestacy 115 6.1 The statutory trust for sale 116 6.2 Rights of a surviving spouse 117 6.3 Special rights of a surviving spouse 122 6.4 Rights of issue 125 6.5 The rights of other relatives 127 6.6 Adopted, legitimated and illegitimate children 129 6.7 Intestate succession and human-assisted reproduction 130 6.8 Forfeiture and intestacy 131 6.9 Commorientes and intestacy 131 Part III OBTAINING A GRANT OF REPRESENTATION 7 Grants of representation 137 7.1 Source, purpose and types of grant 137 7.2 Executors and administrators 138 7.3 Capacity to take out a grant 140 7.4 Executor de son tort 141 7.5 Grants of probate 141 Contents Vll 7.6 Grants of administration with the will annexed 145 7.7 Grants of simple administration 148 7.8 Renunciation 150 7.9 Passing over 151 7.10 Limited grants 152 7.11 Incomplete administration 155 7.12 Revocation of grants 156 7.13 Foreign grants 158 8 Probate jurisdiction 162 8.1 Territorial limits 162 8.2 Non-contentious probate 162 8.3 Caveats and citations 164 8.4 Contentious proceedings 166 Part IV ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES 9 Collection, realization and management of estates 171 9.1 Collection and preservation of the estate 171 9.2 Devolution of assets on personal representatives 173 9.3 Powers of sale, mortgage and leasing 175 9.4 Power of appropriation 176 9.5 Power to appoint trustees 176 9.6 Powers to insure assets 177 9.7 Power of delegation 177 9.8 Powers of investment 179 9.9 Power to carryon the deceased's business 181 10 Payment of expenses, debts and pecuniary legacies 184 10.1 The duty to pay debts and discharge other liabilities 184 10.2 Personal representatives' powers in respect of debts 185 10.3 Funeral, testamentary and administration expenses 186 10.4 Payment of debts and solvent estates 186 10.5 Doctrine of marshalling 194 10.6 Debts and insolvent estates 195 10.7 Incidence of pecuniary legacies 198 II Distribution of the estate 205 11.1 Time for distribution 205 11.2 Position of the beneficiaries during the administration period 206 11.3 Ascertaining the beneficiaries and creditors 208 viii Contents 11.4 Income and interest on gifts 211 11.5 Power of appropriation 216 11.6 Distribution to minors 216 11.7 Assents 217 11.8 Transition from personal representative to trustee 220 12 Remedies of the beneficiaries and creditors 225 12.1 Administration by the court and specific relief 225 12.2 Action against the personal representatives 227 12.3 Defences of personal representatives 228 12.4 Substitution or removal of a personal representative 232 12.5 Actions against the recipients of assets 232 Part V POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 13 Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 241 13.1 Background 241 13.2 Categories of applicant 242 13.3 Jurisdiction and choice of court 248 13.4 Time limits for applications 248 13.5 The test of reasonable financial provision 250 13.6 Criteria for deciding whether or not an order should be made 256 13.7 Property available for financial provision 256 13.8 Forms of provision which the court may make 258 13.9 The effect and burden of the order 259 13.10 Anti-avoidance provisions 259 14 Disclaimers and variations 265 14.1 Reasons for refusing a gift made by will or entitlement of intestacy 265 14.2 Disclaimers 267 14.3 Variations 268 Appendix: Draft Will 271 Glossary 275 Index 278 IX Preface The law of succession is concerned with how a person's assets are disposed of on their death. It is also concerned with estate planning during a person's lifetime in order to minimise the effects of taxation on the estate on death. It is not, however, the intention of this book to provide a detailed explanation of either estate planning or the effects of taxation on death, but to ignore these areas entirely would result in providing an unreal view of the law of succession overall. All adults who have sufficient mental capacity may determine how their assets are to be disposed of on death by making a will in the form prescribed by the law. But if a person does not make a will, or if the will fails to dispose of all his or her property, the rules of intestacy set down in the Administration of Estates Act 1925 (as amended) provide fixed and detailed provisions as to how their property is to be disposed of. Technically speaking, people have total freedom as to how they dispose of their property on death, in the sense that they can execute a will disposing of all their property to whoever they wish. However, it is possible for the terms of a valid will (or the rules of intestacy) to be varied by the court after the death of the testator to make provision for certain dependants or for a cohabitee. The first part of this book (Part I) considers the law relating to wills; how a valid will is made and revoked, and the precise effect of gifts in wills and their construction. Part II looks at the inflexible rules of intestacy which operate if a person has not effectively disposed of their property by will. Part III considers the process of administration of an estate of a deceased person, whether the person has died testate (leaving a valid will) or wholly or partially intestate. Finally, Part IV deals with post-death alterations which may be made to a person's will or to the effect of the rules of intestacy, either by the court (to make provision for dependants or a cohabitee) or by the beneficiaries, who, for some reason, usually connected with tax consequences, do not want to receive their entitlement. CATHERINE RENDELL

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