The Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994

PART I INTRODUCTORY

Title and commencement

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994.

(2) This Order comes into operation on such day or days as the Head of the Department of Finance and Personnel may by order appoint.

(3) If different days are appointed for the coming into operation of different provisions of this Order, any reference in a provision to the commencement of the Order is a reference to the commencement of that provision.

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) applies to Article 1 and the following provisions of this Order as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(2) In this Order—

“gift” means a devise or bequest or the exercise of a general power of appointment;

“personal representatives” means the executors or executor, original or by representation, or the administrators or administrator for the time being of a deceased person;

“property” includes any estate in land, any chattels, any thing in action, and any rights which are treated commercially as property and also includes any interest in property;

“statutory provision” has the meaning given by section 1(f) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954;

“witness”, in relation to a will, means a witness who attests the testator’s signature or acknowledgment of his signature and signs the will in the presence of the testator, or a witness who, having signed the will before the testator, acknowledges his signature in the presence of the testator.

(3) In this Order, any reference to a person’s “estate” is a reference to all property to which he is beneficially entitled for an estate or interest not ceasing on his death.

(1)

1954 c. 33 (N.I.)