PART I

Preliminary and General

1. —This Act may be cited as the Succession Act, 1965.

2. —This Act shall come into operation on such day, not earlier than the 1st day of July, 1966, as the Minister by order appoints.

3. —(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires—

“administration”, in relation to the estate of a deceased person, means letters of administration, whether with or without a will annexed, and whether granted for special or limited purposes;

“administrator” means a person to whom administration is granted;

“conveyance” includes a mortgage, charge, lease, assent, transfer, disclaimer, release and every other assurance of property by any instrument except a will;

“the court” shall be construed in accordance with section 6;

“estate” shall be construed in accordance with section 14;

“grant” means grant of representation;

“infant” means a person under the age of twenty-one years;

“an intestate” means a person who leaves no will or leaves a will but leaves undisposed of some beneficial interest in his estate, and “intestate” shall be construed accordingly;

“legal right” means the right of a spouse under section 111 to a share in the estate of a deceased person;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Justice;

“pecuniary legacy” includes an annuity, a general legacy, a demonstrative legacy so far as it is not discharged out of the designated property, and any other general direction by a testator for the payment of money, including all death duties free from which any devise, bequest, or payment is made to take effect;

“per stirpes” shall be construed in accordance with subsection (3);

“personal representative” means the executor or the administrator for the time being of a deceased person;

“possession” includes the receipt of, or the right to receive, rents and profits, if any;

“probate” means probate of a will;

“property” includes all property both real and personal;

“purchaser” means a grantee, lessee, assignee, mortgagee, chargeant or other person who in good faith acquires an estate or interest in property for valuable consideration;

“real estate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 4;

“representation” means probate or administration;

“share”, in relation to the estate of a deceased person, includes any share or interest, whether arising under a will, on intestacy or as a legal right, and includes also the right to the whole estate;

“trust corporation” has the meaning assigned to it by subsection (4) of section 30;

“valuable consideration” means consideration in money or money's worth;

“will” includes codicil.

(2) Descendants and relatives of a deceased person begotten before his death but born alive thereafter shall, for the purposes of this Act, be regarded as having been born in the lifetime of the deceased and as having survived him.

(3) Where a deceased person's estate or any share therein is to be distributed per stirpes among his issue, any issue more remote than a child of the deceased shall take through all degrees, according to their stocks, in equal shares if more than one, the share which the parent of such issue would have taken if living at the death of the deceased, and no issue of the deceased shall take if the parent of such issue is living at the death of the deceased and so capable of taking.

(4) In this Act, a reference to any enactment is to that enactment as amended or extended by any other enactment, including this Act.

(5) In this Act, a reference to a Part, section, or Schedule is to a Part, section, or Schedule of this Act, unless it is indicated that a reference to some other enactment is intended.

4. —For the purposes of this Act—

(a) “real estate” includes chattels real, and land in possession, remainder, or reversion, and every estate or interest in or over land (including real estate held by way of mortgage or security, but not including money to arise under a trust for sale of land, or money secured or charged on land);

(b) the estate or interest of a deceased person in an estate tail shall be deemed to be an estate or interest ceasing on his death, but any further or other estate or interest of the deceased person in remainder or reversion which is capable of being disposed of by his will shall not be deemed to be an estate or interest so ceasing;

(c) the estate or interest of a deceased person under a joint tenancy where any tenant survives the deceased person shall be deemed to be an estate or interest ceasing on his death;

(d) on the death of a corporator sole his estate or interest in the corporation's real estate shall be deemed to be an estate or interest ceasing on his death;

(e) the estate or interest of a deceased person in real estate shall not be deemed to be an estate or interest ceasing on his death merely because by reason of illegitimacy or otherwise he did not leave next-of-kin surviving him.

5. —Where, after the commencement of this Act, two or more persons have died in circumstances rendering it uncertain which of them survived the other or others, then, for the purposes of the distribution of the estate of any of them, they shall all be deemed to have died simultaneously.

6. —(1) The jurisdiction conferred on a court by this Act may be exercised by the High Court.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the Circuit Court shall, concurrently with the High Court, have all the jurisdiction of the High Court to hear and determine proceedings of the following kinds:

(a) an action in respect of the grant or revocation of representation of the estate of a deceased person in case there is any contention in relation thereto;

(b) proceedings in respect of the administration of the estate of a deceased person or in respect of any share therein;

(c) any proceeding under section 56, 115, 117 or 121.

(3) Unless the necessary parties to the proceedings in a cause sign, either before or at any time during the hearing, the form of consent prescribed by rules of court, the Circuit Court shall not, by virtue of subsection (2), have jurisdiction where the estate of the deceased person—

(a) in so far as it consists of personal estate, exceeds at the time of his death in amount or value £5,000, exclusive of what he may have been entitled to as trustee and not beneficially, but without deducting anything on account of debts due and owing from the deceased, and

(b) in so far as it consists of real estate of which, at the time of his death, he was beneficially seised or possessed, exceeds the rateable valution of £100.

(4) The jurisdiction conferred on the Circuit Court by this section shall be exercised by the judge of the circuit where the deceased, at the time of his death, had a fixed place of abode.

7. —The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

8. —The enactments mentioned in the Second Schedule are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column.

9. —(1) Nothing in this Act shall affect any unrepealed enactment dispensing with probate or administration in the case of personal estate not including chattels real.

(2) Subject to section 118 , nothing in this Act shall—

(a) affect any duty payable in respect of real estate or impose on real estate any other duty than is payable in respect thereof immediately before the commencement of this Act, or

(b) affect any remedy for the recovery of any death duty;

provided, however, that succession duty shall be payable having regard to the rules of distribution of property contained in this Act.

(3) Except to the extent to which any provision of this Act expressly provides to the contrary, the provisions of this Act shall not apply to the estate of any person dying before the commencement of this Act.

(4) The provisions of this Act shall not apply to the will of a testator who dies before the commencement of this Act but shall apply to the will of every testator who dies after such commencement, whether the will was executed before or after that time.

(5) The repeal of any enactment by this Act shall not, save where the contrary appears, affect any established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice or procedure derived from the repealed enactment.