Succession (Scotland) Act 1964
Succession (Scotland)Act 1964
1964 CHAPTER 41
An Act to assimilate and amend the law of Scotland with respect to the succession to the heritable and moveable property of deceased persons; to amend the law in relation to the legal and other prior rights exigible out of such property, to the administration of deceased persons' estates and other property passing on death, to the capacity of minors to test, and to the presumption of survivorship; to provide for certain testamentary dispositions to be probative; to provide for adopted persons to be treated for certain purposes as children of their adopters; to make new provision as to the financial rights and obligations of the parties on the dissolution of a marriage; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[10th June 1964]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Intestate Succession
1 Assimilation of heritage to moveables for purpose of devolution on intestacy.
(1) The whole of the intestate estate of any person dying after the commencement of this Act (so far as it is estate the succession to which falls to be regulated by the law of Scotland) shall devolve, without distinction as between heritable and moveable property, in accordance with—
(a ) the provisions of this Part of this Act, and
(b ) any enactment or rule of law in force immediately before the commencement of this Act which is not inconsistent with those provisions and which, apart from this section, would apply to that person's moveable intestate estate, if any;
and, subject to section 37 of this Act, any enactment or rule of law in force immediately before the commencement of this Act with respect to the succession to intestate estates shall, in so far as it is inconsistent with the provisions of this Part of this Act, cease to have effect.
(2) Nothing in this Part of this Act shall affect legal rights or the prior rights of a surviving spouse; and accordingly any reference in this Part of this Act to an intestate estate shall be construed as a reference to so much of the net intestate estate as remains after the satisfaction of those rights, or the proportion thereof properly attributable to the intestate estate.
2 Rights of succession to intestate estate.
(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act—
(a ) where an intestate is survived by children, they shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(b ) where an intestate is survived by either of, or both, his parents and is also survived by brothers or sisters, but is not survived by any prior relative, the surviving parent or parents shall have right to one half of the intestate estate and the surviving brothers and sisters to the other half thereof;
(c ) where an intestate is survived by brothers or sisters, but is not survived by any prior relative, the surviving brothers and sisters shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(d ) where an intestate is survived by either of, or both, his parents, but is not survived by any prior relative, the surviving parent or parents shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(e ) where an intestate is survived by a husband or a wife, but is not survived by any prior relative, the surviving spouse shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(f ) where an intestate is survived by uncles or aunts (being brothers or sisters of either parent of the intestate), but is not survived by any prior relative, the surviving uncles and aunts shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(g ) where an intestate is survived by a grandparent or grandparents (being a parent or parents of either parent of the intestate), but is not survived by any prior relative, the surviving grandparent or grandparents shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(h ) where an intestate is survived by brothers or sisters of any of his grandparents (being a parent or parents of either parent of the intestate), but is not survived by any prior relative, those surviving brothers and sisters shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;
(i ) where an intestate is not survived by any prior relative, the ancestors of the intestate (being remoter than grandparents) generation by generation successively, without distinction between the paternal and maternal lines, shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate; so however that, failing ancestors of any generation, the brothers and sisters of any of those ancestors shall have right thereto before ancestors of the next more remote generation.
(2) References in the foregoing subsection to brothers or sisters include respectively brothers and sisters of the half blood as well as of the whole blood; and in the said subsection ‘prior relative’, in relation to any class of person mentioned in any paragraph of that subsection, means a person of any other class who, if he had survived the intestate, would have had right to the intestate estate or any of it by virtue of an earlier paragraph of that subsection or by virtue of any such paragraph and section 5 of this Act.
3 Succession of collaterals.
3. Subject to section 5 of this Act, where brothers and sisters of an intestate or of an ancestor of an intestate (in this section referred to as ‘collaterals’) have right to the whole, or, in a case to which subsection (1)(b ) of the last foregoing section applies, to a half, of the intestate estate, the collaterals of the whole blood shall be entitled to succeed thereto in preference to the collaterals of the half blood; but where the collaterals of the half blood have right as aforesaid they shall rank without distinction as between those related to the intestate, or, as the case may be, the ancestor, through their father and those so related through their mother.
4 Succession in cases of illegitimacy.
(1) Notwithstanding anything in section 2 of this Act, where a woman dies intestate and is not survived by any issue within the meaning of this Act, but is survived by illegitimate children, the illegitimate children shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in the said section 2, where an illegitimate person dies intestate and is not survived by any issue within the meaning of this Act, or, being a woman, by any person entitled to succeed to her intestate estate by virtue of the foregoing subsection or that subsection as read with section 5 of this Act, but is survived by his or her mother, the mother shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate.
(3) Except so far as otherwise provided in this section, or this section as read with the next following section, nothing in this Part of this Act shall be construed as importing any rule of succession through illegitimate relationship.
5 Representation.
(1) Subject to section 6 of this Act, where a person who, if he had survived an intestate, would, by virtue of any of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, have had right (otherwise than as a parent or spouse of the intestate) to the whole or to any part of the intestate estate has predeceased the intestate, but has left issue who survive the intestate, such issue shall have the like right to the whole or to that part of the intestate estate as the said person would have had if he had survived the intestate.
(2) The right of any issue entitled to share in an intestate estate by virtue of the foregoing subsection to be appointed to the office of executor on the intestate estate shall be postponed to the right thereto of any person who succeeds to the whole or part of the intestate estate by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this Act apart from this section and who applies for appointment to that office.
6 Division of intestate estate among those having right thereto.
6. If, by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, there are two or more persons having right among them to the whole, or, in a case to which section 2(1)(b ) of this Act relates, to a half, of an intestate estate, then the said estate, or, as the case may be, that half thereof, shall—
(i) those of the said persons who are nearest in degree of relationship to the intestate (in this section referred to as ‘the nearest surviving relatives’) and
(ii) any other persons who were related to the...
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