Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts Where, after 6
December 1962, 2 or more persons have died at the same time or in
circumstances that give rise to reasonable doubts as to which of them survived
the other or others —
(a) the
property of each person so dying shall devolve and if he left a will it shall
take effect, unless a contrary intention is shown by the will, as if he had
survived the other person or persons so dying and had died immediately
afterwards;
(b)
every donatio mortis causa made by a person so dying to another person so
dying is void and of no effect;
(c) if
the life of a person so dying is insured under any policy of life or accident
insurance, and any other person or persons so dying would be entitled
(otherwise than under a will or on the intestacy of any person) to the
proceeds payable under the policy or any part of the proceeds if he or they
survived the person so insured, the proceeds shall, unless a contrary
intention is shown by the instrument governing the distribution of the
proceeds, be distributed as if the person so insured had survived every other
person so dying and had died immediately afterwards;
(d) any
property owned jointly and exclusively by 2 or more of the persons so dying,
other than property so owned by them as trustees, shall devolve as if it were
owned by them when they died as tenants in common in equal shares;
(e)
where, under any will or trust or other disposition, any property would have
passed, whether in consequence of section 33 of the Wills Act 1837 of the
United Kingdom Parliament or otherwise to any of 2 or more possible
beneficiaries (being persons who have so died) if any of them could be shown
to have survived the other or others of them, then, unless a contrary
intention is shown by the will, trust or disposition, it takes effect as if
the property were given to those possible beneficiaries as tenants in common
in equal shares, and the property devolves accordingly, but this paragraph
does not apply in any case to which paragraph (c) or paragraph (f) applies;
(f)
where a power of appointment could have been exercised in respect of any
property by any of 2 or more persons so dying if any of them could be shown to
have survived the other or others of them, unless a contrary intention is
shown by the instrument creating the power, the power may be exercised as if
an equal share of that property had been set apart for appointment by each of
those persons, and as if each of those persons had the power of appointment in
respect of the share of the property so set apart for appointment by him, and
that share shall devolve in default of appointment by him in the manner in
which the property would have devolved in default of appointment by him if he
had been the survivor of those persons, but this paragraph does not apply in
any case to which paragraph (c) applies;
(g)
where, by any will or other testamentary disposition, any property is devised
or bequeathed or appointed to the survivor of 2 or more of the
testator’s children or other issue within the meaning of section 117 4
and all or the last survivors of those children or issue are persons so dying
that section (where it applies) takes effect as if the devise or bequest or
appointment were in equal shares to those of them who so die and leave a child
or children living at the death of the testator;
(h)
where the persons so dying include a testator and one or more of his issue,
however remote, then for the purpose of section 33 of the Wills Act 1837 of
the United Kingdom Parliament where that section applies, the testator shall
be deemed to have survived all his issue so dying and to have died immediately
afterwards, and accordingly, unless a contrary intention is shown by the will,
a devise or bequest by the testator to any of his issue who so dies or has
already died in the testator’s lifetime —
(i)
lapses unless any of the donee’s issue, other than
the persons so dying, is living at the time of the death of the testator;
(ii)
takes effect in accordance with the provisions of section
33 of the Wills Act 1837 of the United Kingdom Parliament if any such other
issue of the donee is living at that time;
(i)
for all other purposes affecting the title to property or
the appointment of trustees, the deaths of the persons so dying shall be
presumed to have occurred in order of seniority, and accordingly the younger
shall be deemed to have survived the elder.
[Section 120 amended: No. 27 of 2007 s. 25.]