1971-HKRS30-16-30_Part04 — Page 44

Grants to allesting

witnesses etc. (Cap. 36)

Order of priority for grant in case of

intestacy,

10

amount of the estate is such that he has no immediate beneficial interest therein, may have a beneficial interest in the event of an accretion thereto:

(vi) any legalce or devisee, whether residuary or specific. entitled on the happening of any contingency, or any person having no interest under the will of the deceased who would have been entitled to a grant if the deceased had died wholly intestate.

20. Where a gift to any person fails by reason of section 10 of the Wills Ordinance (which provides that gifts to attesting witnesses or their spouses shall be void), such person shall not have any right to a grant as a beneficiary named in the will, with- out prejudice to his right to a grant in any other capacity.

21. (1) Where a person dies wholly intestate, the persons baving a beneficial interest in the estate shall be entitled to a grant to administration in the following order of priority, namely—

(i) the surviving spouse or the surviving partner or partners to a union of concubinage entered into before the 7th October 1971;

(ii) the children of the deceased including any children born of a union of concubinage entered into before the 7th October 1971, or the issue of any such child who bas died during the lifetime of the deceased;

(iii) the father or mother of the deceased;

(iv) brothers and sisters of the deceased or the issue of any deceased brother or sister of the deceased who has died during the lifetime of the deceased.

(2) If no person in any of the classes mentioned in sub- paragraphs (i) and (iii) of the last foregoing paragraph has survived the deceased, then, the following persons hereinafter described shall, if they have a beneficial interest in the estate, be entitled to a grant in the following order of priority, namely

(1) grandparents;

(D) uncles and aunts of the deceased, or the issue of any deceased uncle or aunt of the deceased who has died during the lifetime of the deceased.

All of the persons referred to in classes (i) and (ii) of this para- graph shall be entitled to a grant notwithstanding that the relation- ship referred to shall have been established by or resulted from a union of concubinage.

[1

(3) In default of any person having a beneficial interest in the estate, the Official Administrator.

(4) If all persons entitled to a grant under the foregoing provisions of this rule have been cleared off, a grant may be made to a creditor of the deceased or to any person who, notwithstand- ing that be has no immediate beneficial interest in the estate. may have a beneficial interest in the event of an accretion thereto.

(5) Subject to rule 25(3), the personal representative of a person in any of the classes mentioned in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this rule or the personal representative of a creditor shall have the same right to a grant as the person whom he represents:

Provided that the persons mentioned in paragraph (1) and in paragraph (2) of this rule shall be preferred to the personal representative of a spouse who had died without taking a beneficial interest in the whole estate of the deceased as ascertained at the time of the application for the grant

(6) The provisions of the Adoption Ordinance shall apply in determining the entitlement to a grant as they apply to the devolu- tion of property on intestacy.

22. (1) Where all the persons entitled to the estate of the deceased (whether under a will or on intestacy) have assigned their whole interest in the estate to one or more persons, the assignee or assignees shall replace, in the order of priority for a grant of administration, the assignor or, if there are two or mors assignors, the assignor with the highest priority.

(2) Where there are two or more assignees, administration may be granted with the consent of the others to any one or more (not exceeding four) of them.

(3) In any case where administration is applied for by an assignee, a copy of the instrument of assignment shall be lodged in the Registry.

23, (1) An application to join with a person entitled to a grant of administration a person entitled in a lower degree sball, in default of renunciation by all persons entitled in priority to such last-mentioned person, be made to the Registrar and sball be supported by an affidavit by the person entitled by the consent of the person proposed to be joined as personal representative and by such other evidence as the Registrar may require.

24. (1) An application under section 25(2) of the Ordinance to add a personal representative shall be made to the Registrar and shall be supported by an affidavit by the applicant by the

(Cap. 290.)

Right of assignee to a grant,

Joinder of administrator.

Additional

personal representatives.