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Section IV   Legacies

Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2022)

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Section IV   Legacies

§ 1. Legacies in General

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    799.   Testamentary dispositions of property constitute legacies, either universal, general, or particular.

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    800.   The property of a deceased person which is not disposed of by will, or concerning which the dispositions of his or her will are wholly without effect, remains in his intestate succession, and passes to his or her lawful heirs.

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    801.   When a legacy lapses from a cause dependent upon the legatee, and such legacy is charged with the payment of another legacy, the latter does not lapse in consequence, but is deemed to form a distinct disposition.

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    802.   The legatee may always repudiate the legacy so long as he or she has not accepted it. The repudiation may be made in an informal manner by conduct, by notarial deed, or by a declaration in a judicial proceeding. The right to accept a legacy, not previously repudiated, passes to the legal representatives of the legatee. (Substituted by Act 34 of 1956)

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    803.   Tutors and curators may, with the authority of the Court, repudiate legacies, on behalf of the minors or persons under their control. (Substituted by Act 34 of 1956)

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    804.   When legacies are in favour of several persons jointly, the lapsed share of any one of the joint legatees accrues to the others.

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    Legacies are held to be so made when they are created by one and the same disposition and the testator has not assigned the share of each co-legatee in the thing bequeathed. Directions given to divide the thing jointly disposed of into equal aliquot shares, do not prevent accretion from taking place.

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    The legacy is also presumed to be made jointly when a thing which cannot be divided without deterioration is bequeathed by the same act to several persons separately.

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    The right to accretion as herein described in respect to legatees applies also to gifts inter vivos made in favour of several persons jointly, when some of the donees do not accept.

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    805.   A testator may name legatees who shall be merely trustees for charitable or other lawful purposes within the limits permitted by law; he or she may also deliver over his or her property for the same objects to his or her testamentary executors, or effect such purposes by means of charges imposed upon his or her heirs or legatees.

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    806.   Payment made in good faith to the ostensible heir, or to a legatee who is in possession of the succession, is valid against the heirs or legatees who present themselves afterwards; the latter however having recourse against him or her who has wrongfully received.

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    807.   Fruits and interest arising from the thing bequeathed accrue to the benefit of the legatee from the time of the death of the testator, unless the will directs otherwise.

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    Life-rents or pensions, bequeathed by way of maintenance, also begin from the date of the testator's death.

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    808.   The rules concerning legacies and the presumptions of the testator's intention, as well as the meaning ascribed to certain terms, give way to the formal or otherwise sufficient expression of such intention, given in another sense or with a view to different effects. The testator may disregard these rules in any manner that is not contrary to public order, to good morals, to any law containing a prohibition or some other applicable declaration of nullity, or that is not prejudicial to the rights of creditors and third persons.

§ 2. Universal and General Legacies

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    809.   Universal legacies are testamentary dispositions by which the testator gives to one or to several persons the whole of the property he or she leaves at his or her death.

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    Legacies are only general when the testator bequeaths an aliquot part of his or her property, or the whole of his or her movable or immovable property, or the whole of the private property excluded from the matrimonial community, or an aliquot part of any such whole.

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    All other legacies are particular.

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    The exception of particular things, whatever may be their number or value, does not destroy the character of universal or general legacies.

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    810.   (Repealed by Act 34 of 1956)

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    811.   The liability of a universal, general or particular legatee for the debts and hypothecs, is explained in the Book respecting Successions, and, in certain respects, in the present section, and also in the Book respecting Usufruct.

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    812.   The legatee of a usufruct bequeathed as a universal or general legacy, is personally liable towards the creditors for the debts of the succession, even for the principal, in proportion to what he or she receives. He or she is hypothecarily liable for whatever claims affect the immovables included in his or her share, as any other legatee by the same title, and with the same recourse. The amount is proportioned between him or her and the proprietor in the manner and according to the rules set forth in article 424.

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    813.   A testator may change, among his or her heirs and legatees, the manner and proportions in which the law holds them liable for the payment of the debts and legacies, without prejudice to the personal or hypothecary action of the creditors against those who are legally subject to the right claimed, the latter, however, having recourse against those upon whom the testator imposed the obligation.

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    814.   (Repealed by 34 of 1956)

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    815.   The creditors of a succession have a right to the separation of property against a legatee liable for a debt, in the same manner as against an heir, for the portion in which he or she is liable.

§ 3. Particular Legacies

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    816.   The debts of a testator must in all cases be paid in preference to his or her legacies.

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    Particular legacies are paid by the heirs, or universal or general legatees, each in the proportion for which he is liable, as in the case of debts, and the legatee has a right to demand the separation of property.

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    If the legacy be imposed upon one particular heir or legatee, the personal action of the particular legatee does not extend to the others.

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    The right to a legacy does not carry with it a hypothec upon the property of the succession, but the testator, whatever may be the form of the will, may secure it by a special hypothecation requiring, as regards the rights of third parties, that the will be registered. (Amended by Act 34 of 1956)

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    817.   The bequest of a thing which does not belong to the testator, whether he was aware or not of another's right to it, is void, even when the thing belongs to the heir or legatee charged with the payment of it.

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    The legacy is however valid, and is equivalent to the charge of procuring the thing or of paying its value, if such appear to have been the intention of the testator. (Amended by Act 34 of 1956)

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    818.   If the thing bequeathed belonged to the testator for a part only, he or she is presumed to have bequeathed only the part which belonged to him or her.

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    The same rule applies to the bequest made by one of the spouses of a thing belonging to the community; saving the right of the legatee to the whole of the thing bequeathed under the circumstances enumerated in the title concerning marriage covenants, and generally in the case of the following article. (Amended by Act 34 of 1956)

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    819.   If the testator since the making of the will have become, wholly or in part, owner of the thing bequeathed, the legacy is valid as regards whatever remains in his or her succession, notwithstanding the provisions contained in the preceding article.

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    820.   When a particular legacy comprises a universality of assets and liabilities, as for example a certain succession, the legatee of such universality is held personally and alone liable for the debts connected with it, without prejudice to the rights of the creditors against the heirs and universal or general legatees, who have their recourse against the particular legatee.

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    821.   In the case of insufficiency of the property of the succession, the legacies entitled to preference are paid first, and the remainder is then divided rateably among the other legatees in proportion to the value of their respective legacies. Legatees of a certain and determinate object take it without being bound to contribute to the payment of the other legacies which have no preference over theirs. (Amended by Act 34 of 1956)

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    822.   To obtain the reduction of particular legacies, the creditors must first have exhausted their recourse against the heir or legatee who is personally bound, and have availed themselves in time of the right to separation of property.

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    The creditors exercise this reduction against each of the particular legatees for a share only, in proportion to the value of his or her legacy, but the particular legatees may free themselves by giving up the particular legacies or their value.

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    823.   Creditors of the succession, in the case of reduction of particular legacies, have a preferential right to the thing bequeathed, over the creditors of the legatee, as in the case of separation of property.

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    A particular legatee suffering such reduction has his or her recourse against the heirs or legatees who are personally liable, and is substituted by law in all the rights of the creditor thus paid.

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    824.   When an immovable bequeathed has been increased by further acquisitions of property, the property thus acquired, even if it be contiguous, is not deemed to form part of the legacy, unless from its destination and the circumstances it may be presumed that the testator intended it to form with the immovable bequeathed but one and the same property.

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    Buildings, embellishments and improvements are deemed to be adjuncts of the thing bequeathed.

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    825.   If before or since the will, the immovable bequeathed have been hypothecated for a debt of the testator remaining still due, or even for the debt of a third person whether it was known or not to the testator, the heir, or the universal or general legatee, is not bound to discharge the hypothec, unless the will declares otherwise.

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    A usufruct of the property bequeathed is also at the charge of the particular legatee. The same rule applies to servitudes.

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    If however the hypothecary debt of a third person, of which the testator was ignorant, affect at the same time the particular legacy and the property remaining in the succession, the benefit of division may reciprocally be proclaimed.

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    826.   A legacy made in favour of a creditor is not deemed to be in compensation of his or her claim, nor that in favour of a servant in compensation of his or her wages.

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    827.   (Repealed by Act 34 of 1956)

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