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27 1965

SUCCESSION ACT, 1965

PART XI

Limitation of Actions

Personal representative, as such, not a trustee under Statute of Limitations, 1957.

[1959 (No. 8) s. 26]

123. —(1) A personal representative in the capacity of personal representative shall not, by reason only of section 10 , be a trustee for the purposes of the Statute of Limitations, 1957 .

(2) Subsection (1) is in substitution for paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of section 2 of the Statute of Limitations, 1957 , repealed by this Act.

“Trustee” in Statute of Limitations, 1957, not to include a bailiff.

[New. Overrules Rice v. Begley [1920] 1 I.R. 243]

124. —Notwithstanding any rule of law, “trustee” in the Statute of Limitations, 1957 , shall not include a person whose fiduciary relationship arises merely because he is in possession of property comprised in the estate of a deceased person in the capacity of bailiff for another person.

Persons entitled to shares in land.

[New. Cf. Ward v. Ward (1871) L.R. 6 Ch. 789, Coyle v. MC Fadden [1901] 1 I.R. 298, Smith v. Savage [1906] 1 I.R. 469]

125. —(1) Where each of two or more persons is entitled to any share in land comprised in the estate of a deceased person, whether such shares are equal or unequal, and any or all of them enter into possession of the land, then, notwithstanding any rule of law to the contrary, those who enter shall (as between themselves and as between themselves and those (if any) who do not enter) be deemed, for the purposes of the Statute of Limitations, 1957 , to have entered and to acquire title by possession as joint tenants (and not as tenants in common) as regards their own respective shares and also as regards the respective shares of those (if any) who do not enter.

(2) Subsection (1) shall apply whether or not any such person entered into possession as personal representative of the deceased, or having entered, was subsequently granted representation to the estate of the deceased.

Actions in respect of estates of deceased persons.

[New]

126. —The Statute of Limitations, 1957 , is hereby amended by the substitution of the following section for section 45:

“45. (1) Subject to section 71, no action in respect of any claim to the estate of a deceased person or to any share or interest in such estate, whether under a will, on intestacy or under section 111 of the Succession Act, 1965, shall be brought after the expiration of six years from the date when the right to receive the share or interest accrued.

(2) No action to recover arrears of interest in respect of any legacy or damages in respect of such arrears shall be brought after the expiration of three years from the date on which the interest became due.”

Limitation period in case of disability.

[New]

127. Section 49 of the Statute of Limitations, 1957 , which extends the periods of limitation fixed by that Act where the person to whom a right of action accrued was under a disability, shall have effect in relation to an action in respect of a claim to the estate of a deceased person or to any share in such estate, whether under a will, on intestacy or as a legal right, as if the period of three years were substituted for the period of six years mentioned in subsection (1) of that section.