Clause 11. — (Representation in, and Division of, Legitim.)

Part of Orders of the Day — Succession (Scotland) Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 February 1964.

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Photo of Mr David Anderson Mr David Anderson , Dumfriesshire 12:00, 19 February 1964

The Amendment would leave out the subsection which applies the rules relating to collation of advances to cases in which legitim is being claimed under Clause 11 for issue of a pre-deceasing child.

The present rule is that if a child received an advance from his parent during the parent's lifetime and then subsequently claims legitim from his parent's estate, he may be required by any other person entitled to claim legitim from that estate to bring the amount of the advance into the legitim fund.

But under Clause 11 the issue of a pre-deceasing child may for the first time claim legitim, and that is why it is necessary to extend the rule for the collation of such claims, and subsection (3) does that. This is very clearly fair. Therefore, on the part of the hon. Gentleman's remarks about the deletion of the subsection, I submit that his suggestion should be rejected because the subsection serves a useful purpose.

As I understood the hon. Gentleman's further observations, they were related not so much to the content of his Amendment—that is, the desirability or otherwise of striking out subsection (3)—as to a matter which he suggested I had not adequately covered in a letter I had given him explanatory of certain matters raised in Committee. On that matter I shall be happy to write further to him, but that does not relate to the question raised directly by the Amendment.

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