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LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the law relating to children born out of
wedlock.{1}
[4th June 1928]
Legitimation by subsequent marriage of parents.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 1

1.(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, where the parents
of an illegitimate person marry or have married one another, whether
before or after the commencement of this Act, the marriage shall,
if the father of the illegitimate person was or is at the date of
the marriage domiciled in Northern Ireland, render that person, if
living, legitimate from the commencement of this Act, or from the
date of the marriage, whichever last happens.

Subs.(2) rep. by 1961 c.5 (NI) s.1(1)

(3) The legitimation of a person under this Act does not enable
him or his spouse, children or remoter issue to take any interest
in real or personal property save as is hereinafter in this Act
expressly provided.

Subs.(4) rep. by SLR 1976

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 2
Declarations of legitimacy of legitimated persons.

2.(1) A person claiming that he or his parent or any remoter
ancestor became or has become a legitimated person may present a
petition under the Legitimacy Declaration Act (Ireland), 1868, and
that Act, subject to such necessary modifications as may be
prescribed by rules of court, shall apply accordingly.

(2) A petition under the said Act may be presented by any such
person as aforesaid to the county court instead of to the High
Court, and the county court on such a petition being presented
shall have all such jurisdiction as by the said Act is conferred
upon the High Court:

Provided that, where a petition is presented to the county court,
the county court, if it considers that the case is one which owing
to the value of the property involved or otherwise ought to be
dealt with by the High Court, may, and if so ordered by the High
Court shall, transfer the matter to the High Court, and on such
transfer the proceeding shall be continued in the High Court as if
it had been originally commenced therein.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 3
Rights of legitimated persons, etc., to take interests in property.

3.(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, a legitimated person
and his spouse, children or remoter issue shall be entitled to take
any interest

(a)in the estate of an intestate dying after the date of
legitimation;

(b)under any disposition coming into operation after the date of
legitimation;

(c)by descent under a disposition whereby an estate tail has been
created after the date of legitimation;

(2) Where the right to any property, real or personal, depends on
the relative seniority of the children of any person, and those
children include one or more legitimated persons, the legitimated
person or persons shall rank as if he or they had been born on
the day when he or they became legitimated by virtue of this Act,
and if more than one such legitimated person became legitimated at
the same time, they shall rank as between themselves in order of
seniority.

(3) Where property real or personal or any interest therein is
limited in such a way that, if this Act had not been passed, it
would (subject or not to any preceding limitations or charges) have
devolved (as nearly as the law permits) along with a dignity or
title of honour, then nothing in this Act shall operate to sever
the property or any interest therein from such dignity, but the
same shall go and devolve (without prejudice to the preceding
limitations or charges aforesaid) in like manner as if this Act had
not been passed. This sub-section applies, whether or not there is
any express reference to the dignity or title of honour and
notwithstanding that in some events the property, or some interest
therein, may become severed therefrom.

(4) This section applies only if and so far as a contrary
intention is not expressed in the disposition, and shall have effect
subject to the terms of the disposition and to the provisions
therein contained.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 4
Succession on intestacy of legitimated persons and their issue.

4. Where a legitimated person or a child or remoter issue of a
legitimated person dies intestate in respect of all or any of his
real or personal property, the same persons shall be entitled to
take the same interests therein as they would have been entitled to
take if the legitimated person had been born legitimate.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 5
Application to illegitimate person dying before marriage of parents.

5.Where an illegitimate person dies after the commencement of this
Act and before the marriage of his parents leaving any spouse,
children or remoter issue living at the date of such marriage,
then, if that person would, if living at the time of the marriage
of his parents, have become a legitimated person, the provisions of
this Act with respect to the taking of interests in property by,
or in succession to, the spouse, children and remoter issue of a
legitimated person (including those relating to the rate of death
duties) shall apply as if such person as aforesaid had been a
legitimated person and the date of the marriage of his parents had
been the date of legitimation.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 6
Personal rights and obligations of legitimated persons.

6.8(1) A legitimated person shall have the same rights, and shall
be under the same obligations in respect of the maintenance and
support of himself or of any other person, as if he had been born
legitimate, and, subject to the provisions of this Act, the
provisions of any Act relating to claims for damages, compensation,
allowance, benefit, or otherwise by or in respect of a legitimate
child shall apply in like manner in the case of a legitimated
person.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR (NI) 1952

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 7
Death duties.

7. Where a legitimated person or any relative of a legitimated
person takes any interest in real or personal property, any... duty
which becomes leviable after the date of legitimation shall be
payable at the same rate as if the legitimated person had been
born legitimate.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 8
Provisions as to persons legitimated by extraneous law.

8.(1) Where the parents of an illegitimate person marry or have
married one another, whether before or after the commencement of
this Act, and the father of the illegitimate person was or is, at
the time of the marriage, domiciled in a country, other than
Northern Ireland, by the law of which the illegitimate person became
legitimated by virtue of such subsequent marriage, that person, if
living, shall in Northern Ireland be recognised as having been so
legitimated from the commencement of this Act or from the date of
the marriage, whichever last happens, notwithstanding that his father
was not at the time of the birth of such person domiciled in a
country in which legitimation by subsequent marriage was permitted by
law.

(2) All the provisions of this Act relating to legitimated persons
and to the taking of interests in property by or in succession to
a legitimated person and the spouse, children and remoter issue of
a legitimated person (including those relating to the rate of death
duties) shall apply in the case of a person recognised as having
been legitimated under this section, or who would, had he survived
the marriage of his parents, have been so recognised; and,
accordingly, this Act shall have effect as if references therein to
a legitimated person included a person so recognised as having been
legitimated.

(3) For the purposes of this section, the expression "country"
includes England and Wales, Scotland and any other part of His
Majesty's Dominions, as well as a foreign country.

S.9 rep. by 1977 NI17 art.3(7)

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 10
Savings.

10.(1) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as affecting the
succession to any dignity or title of honour or as rendering any
person capable of succeeding to or transmitting a right to succeed
to any such dignity or title.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall affect the operation or construction
of any disposition coming into operation before the commencement of
this Act, or affect any rights under the intestacy of a person
dying before the commencement of this Act.

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 11
Interpretation.

11. For the purposes of this Act, unless the context otherwise
requires:

The expression "legitimated person" means a person legitimated by
this Act:

The expression "date of legitimation" means the date of the marriage
leading to the legitimation, or where the marriage occurred before
the commencement of this Act, the commencement of this Act:

The expression "disposition" means an assurance of any interest in
property by any instrument whether inter vivos or by will:

The expression "intestate" includes a person who leaves a will but
dies intestate as to some beneficial interest in his real or
personal estate, and "will" includes "codicil."

LEGITIMACY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1928 - SECT 12
Short title.

12.(1) This Act may be cited as the Legitimacy Act (Northern
Ireland), 1928.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR (NI) 1952

Schedule rep. by 1967 c.25 (NI) s.65 sch.3