Part VI Miscellaneous and Supplementary
31 Presumption of survivorship in respect of claims to property.
1
Where two persons have died in circumstances indicating that they died simultaneously or rendering it uncertain which, if either, of them survived the other, then, for all purposes affecting title or succession to property or claims to legal rights or the prior rights of a surviving spouse,
a
where the persons were husband and wife, it shall be presumed that neither survived the other; and
b
in any other case, it shall be presumed that the younger person survived the elder unless the next following subsection applies.
2
If, in a case to which paragraph (b) of the foregoing subsection would (apart from this subsection) apply, the elder person has left a testamentary disposition containing a provision, however expressed, in favour of the younger if he survives the elder and, failing the younger, in favour of a third person, and the younger person has died intestate, then it shall be presumed for the purposes of that provision that the elder person survived the younger.