Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

Section IV   The Coming into Operation of Substitutions and the Delivery of the Property to the Substitute

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    896.   When no period is assigned for the coming into operation of a substitution and the delivery of the property to the substitute, they take place at the death of the institute.

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    897.   The substitute takes the property directly from the grantor and not from the institute.

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    The substitute, by the coming into operation of the substitution in his favour, becomes immediately seized of the property in the same manner as any other legatee; he or she may dispose of it absolutely and transmit it in his or her succession, if he or she is not prohibited from doing so, or if the substitution do not continue beyond him or her.

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    898.   If, by reason of a pending condition or some other disposition of the will, the coming into operation of the substitution do not take place immediately upon the death of the institute, his or her heirs and legatees continue, until the operation takes effect, to exercise his or her rights, and remain liable for his or her obligations.

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    899.   The legatee who is charged as a mere trustee, to administer the property and to employ it or deliver it to the substitute in accordance with the will, even though the terms used appear really to give him or her the quality of a proprietor subject to deliver, rather than that of a mere executor or administrator, does not retain the property in the event of the lapse of the ulterior disposition, or of the impossibility of applying such property to the purposes intended, unless the testator has manifested his or her intention to that effect. The property in such cases passes to the heir or the legatee who receives the succession.

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    900.   The institute or his or her heirs deliver the property together with its accessories. They render the fruits and interest accrued since the substitution came into operation, if they have received them, unless the substitute, when duly required to accept the legacy, refused to accept or has failed to do so either expressly or by implication.

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    901.   If the institute were a debtor or a creditor of the grantor, and in consequence of his or her accepting as heir, as universal or general legatee, confusion take place so as to destroy his or her debt or his or her claim, such debt or claim, notwithstanding such confusion which is deemed to be only temporary, revives between the substitute and the institute or his or her heirs, when the property comes to be delivered over; except as to interest for the time during which the confusion existed.

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    The institute or his or her heirs are entitled to the separation of property in the prosecution of their claim, and may retain the property until they are paid.

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    902.   Institutes under age, interdicted, or unborn, or under coverture, are not relievable from the non-fulfilment of the obligations imposed upon them, or upon their husbands, tutors, or curators for them, by this and the preceding section; but have recourse, as in other cases, against those bound to act for them.