(Substituted by Act 3 of 1957)
1015.
(1) The application for letters of administration shall be made in the Registry by petition and shall be accompanied by the following documents—
(a) a certified copy of the will of the deceased, if it is a notarial will, or the original will, if it is not a notarial will, (where the grant is to be annexed to a will);
(b) the affidavit or affidavits of proof of due execution in the case of a non-notarial will (where the grant is to be annexed to a will);
(c) an affidavit setting out the names and addresses of the persons entitled to the grant in order of priority and containing the administrator's oath;
(d) an affidavit of the assets and liabilities of the deceased; and
(e) a certificate of the death of the intestate or any other proof in lieu thereof.
(2) The letters of administration shall not be handed out until there has been produced to the Registrar a certificate in writing under the hand of the Accountant General showing that the Accountant General does not object to such grant.
1016.
(1) Letters of administration shall be granted to the persons entitled in the following order of priority—
(a) to the persons within the heritable degree in order of their right to succeed the deceased; or
(b) failing such persons, to the surviving wife or husband of the deceased, as the case may be; or
(c) failing such surviving wife or husband to the person nominated by the Crown to apply for administration.
(2) Where administration is applied for by one or some of the heirs only, there being another or other heirs equally entitled thereto, the Registrar may require proof by affidavit or statutory declaration that notice of such application has been given to such other heirs.
1017.
(1) Limited administrations shall not be granted unless every person entitled to the general grant has consented or renounced or has been cited and failed to appear, except under the direction of a Judge.
(2) For the purpose of giving effect to subsection (4) of article 586 of the Civil Code, the practice and procedure relating to limited grants in force in the principal registry of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice in England shall, so far as the same is not inconsistent with the law of the Saint Lucia and is applicable in local circumstances, apply and have effect in Saint Lucia.
1018. Save as in the Fourth Chapter of Part Third of the Civil Code expressly provided, no person entitled to a general grant in respect of the succession of a deceased person shall be permitted to take a limited grant, except under the direction of a Judge.
1019. In the case of a person residing out of Saint Lucia, administration or administration with the will annexed, may be granted to his or her attorney acting under a power of attorney.
1020. Grants of administration may be made to tutors of minors for their use and benefit.
1021. In case of a minor not having a testamentary tutor or a tutor appointed by the Court, a tutor shall be assigned by order of a Judge founded on an affidavit showing that the proposed tutor is a fit and proper person to be appointed for the purpose of taking the administration, that he or she is consenting to the assignment as such tutor and is ready to undertake the tutorship and that he or she has no interest adverse to the minor in the succession of the deceased.
1022.
(1) The oath to lead to a grant of administration or of administration with the will annexed shall be so worded as to clear off all persons having a prior right to the grant, and the grant shall show on the face of it how the prior interests have been cleared off.
(2) In all administrations of a special character the recitals in the oath and in the letters of administration shall be framed in accordance with the facts of the case.
1023. When any person takes letters of administration in default of the appearance of persons cited, but not personally served with the citation, and when any person takes letters of administration for the use and benefit of a person of unsound mind, unless he or she be a curator appointed by the Court, a declaration of all the property of the deceased shall be filed in the Registry, and the sureties to the administration bond (if ordered by the Court) shall justify.
1024. No letters of administration shall issue until after the lapse of 14 days from the death of the deceased, unless under the direction of a Judge.
1025. Except where otherwise provided in this Book, no person who renounces administration (with or without the will) of the succession of a deceased person in one character shall be allowed to take representation to the same deceased in another character.