INTESTATE HUSBAND'S ESTATE (SCOTLAND) BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 13 March 1919)

§ LORD STANMORE

My Lords, I hope you will consent to read a second time another very short Scottish Bill. The purpose of this Bill is to provide machinery for carrying into effect the provisions of the Intestate Husband's Estate (Scotland) Act of 1911. That Act has the same object as was secured for the rest of the United Kingdom by the Intestate Estates Act, 1890—namely, to obtain for the widow of an intestate husband who died without issue the whole of his estate where that does not exceed £500, and, where the estate exceeds that sum, £500 in addition to any legal rights the widow may have in the remainder of the estate after deduction of the £500. Experience has shown that, especially in cases where the estate is in part heritable, there is frequently no known process whereby a widow may secure the rights this Act confers upon her. The present Bill proposes to promote procedure to be available in all such cases. The first three clauses of the Bill provide for an application by the widow, entitled to the benefits of the 1911 Act, to the Sheriff Court for the appropriate order by the Court to enable her to make good her rights in the different cases which may occur. 675 Clause 4 safeguards the claims of the revenue. Clause 5 repeals Section 5 of the Act of 1911, which provides a special method of determining the new value of the heritable estates for the purposes of the Act. This Bill proposes to repeal that section and to leave the value to be determined in accordance with the ordinary rules. I beg to move.