A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy.
Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without having in force a valid will or other binding declaration. Alternatively this may also apply where a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of the estate; the remaining estate forms the "intestate estate". Intestacy law, also referred to as the law of descent and distribution, refers to the body of law that determines who is entitled to the property from the estate under the rules of inheritance.
Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the state of residence of the deceased at time of death in the absence of a legal will.
In property law, a concurrent estate or co-tenancy is any of various ways in which property is owned by more than one person at a time. If more than one person owns the same property, they are commonly referred to as co-owners. Legal terminology for co-owners of real estate is either co-tenants or joint tenants, with the latter phrase signifying a right of survivorship. Most common law jurisdictions recognize tenancies in common and joint tenancies.
Forced heirship is a form of testate partible inheritance which mandates how the deceased's estate is to be disposed and which tends to guarantee an inheritance for family of the deceased.
An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate of a person who has died.
Islamic Inheritance jurisprudence is a field of Islamic jurisprudence that deals with inheritance, a topic that is prominently dealt with in the Qur'an. It is often called Mīrāth, and its branch of Islamic law is technically known as ʿilm al-farāʾiḍ.
In common-law jurisdictions, administration of an estate on death arises if the deceased is legally intestate, meaning they did not leave a will, or some assets are not disposed of by their will.
The law of persons in South Africa regulates the birth, private-law status and the death of a natural person. It determines the requirements and qualifications for legal subjectivity in South Africa, and the rights and responsibilities that attach to it.
The South African law of succession prescribes the rules which determine the devolution of a person's estate after his death, and all matters incidental thereto. It identifies the beneficiaries who are entitled to succeed to the deceased's estate, and the extent of the benefits they are to receive, and determines the different rights and duties that persons may have in a deceased's estate. It forms part of private law.
Daniels v Campbell NO and Others, an important case in South African law, was heard in the Constitutional Court on 6 November 2003, with judgment handed down on 11 March 2004. The applicant was a woman married in terms of Muslim rites, whose husband had died intestate. The court noted that Muslim marriages were not recognised in South African law. It concluded that this violated section 9 of the Constitution. Accordingly, it was held that the applicant could inherit. The ambit of this judgment was restricted to de facto monogamous Muslim marriages; it was extended to polygamous Muslim marriages in Hassam v Jacobs. In this Context the word "spouses" was questioned
Bhe and Others v Magistrate, Khayelitsha and Others; Shibi v Sithole and Others; SA Human Rights Commission and Another v President of the RSA and Another was an important case in South African customary law.
In L. Taylor v AE Pim, an important case in the South African law of succession.
Gafin NO v Kavin, an important case in South African succession law, concerned an application for a declaratory order. AJ Horwitz for the applicant; LI Goldblatt appeared as curator ad litem. The applicant's attorneys were Singer, Horwitz & Robin.
In Makhanya v Minister of Finance (2001), an important case in the South African law of succession, the deceased (R) was a civil servant who was murdered by his wife. In terms of the Governmental Services Act, his wife was entitled to receive his pension benefits. R's daughter, however, approached the court to declare the deceased's wife unworthy of inheriting. The court considered the question of whether the bloedige hand principle could be extended to statutory principles. The court held that public policy dictates that the principle should not be limited and accordingly extended its application to the statute.
In Danielz v De Wet, an important case in the South African law of succession, Danielz was the executor of De Wet's estate. Danielz sought an order declaring the deceased's widow unworthy of inheriting. The reason for this was that the widow had hired an accomplice to assault the deceased and as a result of the assault, the deceased died.
In Ex Parte Lutchman, an important case in South African succession law, the deceased had left certain property to his six children in equal shares in a validly executed will. One of the deceased's children took out three life insurance policies on his father's life and explained to his father that in order for him to get the benefits of the policies when he died, he must draft a new will. The only provision in the second will was that the son was appointed the sole heir of the insurance policies, so he did not deal with any of the rest of his estate. Furthermore, he accidentally included a revocation clause in the new will, so its effect was that everything except the insurance policies devolved according to the law of intestate succession. At that stage, extra-marital children of persons marriage in terms of Hindu custom could not inherit intestate. The children of the deceased approached the court to declare the second will invalid insofar as it revoked the previous will. The court held that the revocation clause in the second will was obviously a mistake, so this clause was held to be pro non scripto.
In Van Zyl v Esterhuyse, an important case in the law of succession in South Africa, the applicant applied for the rectification of a joint will executed by herself and her deceased husband. The will appointed her as the sole heir subject to the conditions
In Blom and Another v Brown and Others, [2011] ZASCA 54, [2011] 3 All SA 223, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) of South Africa dismissed an appeal by Nadine Blom and her sister Elmari Brown, the children of Alfred Samuel Brown, against a judgment of the North Gauteng High Court, where Ismail AJ had held that the first respondent, Cecilia Brown, whom the deceased had married after his divorce from the mother of the appellants, was entitled to receive the benefits reserved to her by the will of the deceased.
Ophelia (Catata) Paquet was a Tillamook Indian woman involved in a famous Oregon miscegenation court case in year 1919. The case's issue was whether Ophelia Paquet could inherit her deceased Caucasian husband's estate in the U.S. state of Oregon. Her case exemplifies the role that marriage has in the transmission of property and how race can affect gender complications.
