717. Deeds containing gifts inter vivos must under pain of nullity be executed in notarial form and the original thereof be kept of record. The acceptance must be made in the same form.
Gifts of movable property, accompanied by delivery, may however be made and accepted by private writings, or verbal agreements.
Gifts made out of Saint Lucia and valid according to the law of the place where they are made, are valid in Saint Lucia though not in notarial form. But such gifts, though valid as regards form, may be wholly or partly void of effect if contravening the law of Saint Lucia in other respects. Any transfer of immovable property must be in such form as to be capable of registration.
718. It is essential to gifts intended to take effect inter vivos that the donor should actually divest himself or herself of his or her ownership in the thing given.
The donor may reserve to himself or herself the usufruct or precarious possession, or he or she may pass the usufruct to one person, and the bare ownership to another, provided he or she completely divests himself or herself of his or her ownership.
The thing given may be claimed, as in the case of sale, from the donor who withholds it, and the donee may demand the rescission of the gift in default of its being delivered, without prejudice to his or her damages in cases where he or she may claim them.
If without reservation of usufruct or of precarious possession, the thing given remain unclaimed in the hands of the donor until his or her death, it may be revendicated from his or her heirs, provided the deed has been registered during the lifetime of the donor.
The gift of an annuity created by the deed of such gift, or of a sum of money or other indeterminate thing which the donor promises to pay or to deliver, divests the donor in the sense that he or she becomes the debtor of the donee.
719. Present property only can be given by acts inter vivos. All gifts of future property by such acts are void, as made in contemplation of death. Gifts comprising both present and future property are void only as to the latter.
The prohibition contained in this article does not extend to gifts made in a contract of marriage.
720. A donor may stipulate for the right of taking back the thing given, in the event of the donee alone, or of the donee and his or her descendants dying before him or her.
A resolutive condition may in all cases be stipulated, either in favour of the donor alone, or of third persons.
The right to take back, or any other resolutive right, is exercised in cases of gift in the same manner and with the same effects as the right of redemption in the case of sale.
721. A gift may consist of a person's whole property, and it is then universal; or of the whole of the movable or immovable property, of the whole of the property of the matrimonial community or of any other universality, or of an aliquot portion of such property, and is in such cases a general gift; or it may be limited to things particularly described, and is then a particular gift.(Amended by Act 34 of 1956)
722. The distribution of present property among children or other descendants is considered as a gift inter vivos, and is subject to the same rules.
The same disposition cannot be made in contemplation of death in an act inter vivos, except by means of a gift inserted in a contract of marriage as set forth in the Sixth Section of this Chapter.
723. It may be stipulated that a gift inter vivos shall be suspended, revoked, or reduced, under conditions which do not depend solely upon the will of the donor.
If the donor reserve to himself or herself the right to dispose of or to take back at pleasure some object included in the gift, or a sum of money out of the property given, the gift holds good for the remainder, but is void as to the part reserved, which continues to belong to the donor, except in gifts by contract of marriage.
724. All gifts inter vivos stipulated to be revocable at the mere will of the donor are void.
725. Gifts inter vivos of present property are void if they are made subject to the condition of paying other debts or charges than those which exist at the time of such gifts, or than those to come, the nature and amount of which are expressed and defined in the deed or in the statement annexed to it.
This article does not apply to gifts by contract of marriage.
726. The causes of nullity and prohibitions specified in the last 3 preceding articles and article 719, take effect notwithstanding all stipulations or renunciations by which it may be sought to evade them. (Amended by Act 34 of 1956)
727. Unless some special law requires it, a deed of gift need not be accompanied by a statement of the movable property given; the legal proof of its nature and quantity devolves upon the donee.
728. Gifts inter vivos do not bind the donor nor produce any effect until after they are accepted. If the donor be not present at the acceptance, they take effect only from the day on which he acknowledges or is notified of it.
729. The acceptance of a gift need not be in express terms. It may be inferred from the deed or from circumstances, among which may be counted the presence of the donee to the deed, and his or her signature.
The acceptance is presumed in a contract of marriage, as well with regard to the spouses as to the future children. In gifts of movable property this presumption also results from the delivery.
730.
(1) Gifts inter vivos may be accepted by the donee himself or herself, authorised and assisted if so it be as in other contracts. Minors, and persons to whom a receiver has been appointed, may also accept unassisted, with the right however to be relieved. Tutors and ascendants may accept on behalf of minors, and curators appointed to interdicted persons may also accept for such persons.
(2) The persons who compose a corporation or administer for it may also accept gifts in its behalf.
(Amended by Act 34 of 1956)
731. In gifts inter vivos in favour of children born and to be born, where such gifts may be made, the acceptance by those who are born, or by a qualified person for them, holds good for the others not yet born, if they avail themselves of it.
732. The acceptance may be subsequent to the deed of gift; but it must be made during the lifetime of the donor, and while he or she is still capable of giving.
733. Minors and interdicted persons cannot be relieved from the acceptance or repudiation made in their name by a qualified person, if it have been previously authorised by a Judge. With these formalities the acceptance is as effectual as if it were made by a person of age, in the full exercise of his or her rights.
734. Deeds of gift may be executed subject to acceptance, without the donee being therein represented. An acceptance purporting to be made by the notary, or other person not specially authorised, does not render the gift void, but it is without effect, and the confirmation by the donee can only avail as an acceptance from the time at which it takes place.
735. A gift cannot be accepted after the death of the donee by his or her heirs or representatives.