Jack’s Trs v Jack, 1913 SC 815
Citation: Jack’s Trs v Jack, 1913 SC 815
Rule of thumb: If multiple people are given life-rent contracts – a right to stay in a part of a property for their life – and all but one leaves, does the last person to leave become the owner of the property? No, the last person to leave does not become and if all leave it has to be divided up according to succession law.
Judgment:
This case affirmed that the ‘non-abandonment of life-rents’ – where multiple people have been given a liferent with the last remaining survivor guaranteed ownership, if all but one of them abandons their liferent right to access the property, then it does not make the only person who does not entitled to ownership of it, ‘liferent’ of property cannot be abandoned ‘When vesting and not mere payment is dependent upon the death of the liferenter, nothing that the liferenter does in the way of abandoning his or her right can accelerate the period of vesting, because the testator has fixed it finally, and it is not for anybody else to make a new will for him’, Lord Kinnear at 826
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.