Law amended to secure inheritance for spouses in common-law unions

…as Govt continues push to remove colonial era civil laws

As part of their push to amend laws that were inherited from the colonial era, the Government has passed the Civil Laws Amendments Bill which will ensure that widows or widowers, common-law or otherwise, can solely inherit assets of the deceased.
Presenting the bill in the wee hours of Tuesday morning in the National Assembly was Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC. The AG called the amendment to Section 5 (1, B) of the principal Act revolutionary.
“I spoke last week about the Government’s agenda to overhaul our legislative architecture and to remove from it, vestiges of colonialism, archaic concepts and principles and anachronistic concepts and to bring into our law our forward-thinking ethos to which our people aspire.”
“The bill which is before the House is part of that agenda. It may appear very simple, very small in form. But the impact of this bill will be monumental, particularly for our women,” Nandlall said.

He noted that the Civil Laws Amendment bill recognises the entitlement to inherited property of widows or widowers, irrespective of whether the union produced children or whether they went through a formal marriage ceremony.
“This amendment seeks to remove any type of discrimination, unshackle that spouse who is left in a union after the death of the other spouse, but has to share the matrimonial property acquired during that period with persons outside of that union.”
“We feel that to keep that in our law books not only perpetuates injustice, but it continues a culture of discrimination which offends against the rule of law, and offends against our Constitution,” the AG said.
Meanwhile, A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) MP Juretha Fernandes urged that Guyana’s cultural norms when it comes to wills and inherited property be considered. She was of the view that the passage of the bill would negatively impact the family of the deceased spouses, who would be expecting a share of the estate.
The Civil Law Amendment Bill amends Section 5 (1) of the Principal Act, with insertion in paragraph (b) of the following; “if there are no descendants, the widow or widower shall take the whole estate.”
The explanatory memorandum of the bill states that Section 5 (1 B) previously provided that “where a person dies intestate and leaves a widow or widower but no descendant, his estate shall be divided, after all debts, funeral expenses and just expenses have been deducted from the estate, to give one half of the estate to the widow or widower and to distribute the residue equally among the next of kin of the person who dies intestate who are in equal degree.”
With the amendment, Section 5(1 B) now “provides that where a person dies intestate and leaves a widow or widower and there are no descendants, the widow or widower of the intestate shall take the whole estate after all debts, funeral expenses and just expenses have been deducted from the estate.”
With the bill passed, it now awaits the assent of President Dr Irfaan Ali to become law. (G3)