Appendix 1: Non-contentious Probate Business Rules

• Author: Karen Nunez-Tesheira
• Pages: 514-637

514 / Probate Practice and Procedure

BAHAMAS

(Section 41)

(Commencement 6th October 1917)

1. (1) These Rules may be cited as The Probate Rules.

(2) The expressions used in these Rules, unless the context otherwise

requires, shall have the same meanings as an assigned to similar

expressions by The Supreme Court Act or by The Interpretation

Act.

“The applicant” means the person seeking from the Court a grant

of Probate or Letters of Administration, or the sealing of Probate

or Letters of Administration, or other testamentary paper granted

out of the jurisdiction of the Court.

2. An application for Probate or Letters of Administration, or for sealing

a Probate or Letters of Administration or other testamentary paper

granted out of the jurisdiction, must be made either in person or by

counsel, except where the applicant is out of the jurisdiction in which

case the may authorise someone by a Power of Attorney to make the

application on his behalf, and the person so authorised may appear in

person or by counsel.

3. An application must be made by filing a Petition in the Registry of the

Court, after payment of the stamp duties and Court fees specified in

Rule 30(2).

4. The following documents necessary to lead the grant must also be

filed in the Registry:

-In the case of Probate—

(a) the original will or a photostatic copy thereof;

(b) an affidavit of an attesting witness in proof of the due execution

of the will, and if both attesting witnesses are dead or if from any

Appendix I

Non-Contentious Probate/

Business Rules

Appendix / 515

other circumstances no affidavit can be obtained from either of

them, resort must be had to other persons (if any) who may have

been present at the execution of the will or codicil. If no affidavit

of any such other person can be obtained evidence on affidavit

must be procured of that fact and of the handwriting of the

deceased and the subscribing witnesses and also of any

circumstances which may raise a presumption in favour of the

rule execution;

(c) an affidavit of an executor showing the date and place of death,

giving in the Schedule thereto a description of all the property of

the deceased to be affected by the grant applied for and stating

the estimated value of the personal estate.

In the case of Letters of Administration—

(a) an affidavit of the applicant proving and stating the same facts as

those required in an executor’s affidavit, and stating the grounds

on which the applicant bases his claim; and

(b) if for Letters of Administration with the will annexed an affidavit

of proof of the due execution of the will, to which affidavit the

original will or a photostatic copy thereof must be made an exhibit.

Where a will is filed, the Registrar may accept a fair copy thereof

to be annexed to the Letters.

5. Where the application is for Letters of Administration of the estate of a

bastard dying a bachelor, or a spinster, or a widower, or widow, without

issue, notice of the application must be given by the Registrar to the

Attorney General, and no grant shall issue until the Attorney General

has signified the course he intends to take.

6. (1) Where an application is made in person and the goods and chattels

of the deceased are under the value of ten pounds and the real

estate is of very small value, the papers, where the applicant resides

in New Providence, must be prepared by the Registrar, and where

the applicant resides on an Out Island by the commissioner who,

on completion thereof, shall forward the same without delay to

the Registrar, together with the stamp duties and fees specified

in Rule 30(2).

(2) Where counsel appears, he must prepare the papers and submit

them for approval.

7. An affidavit may be sworn in an Out Island before the commissioner

or other justice of the peace in such Out Island and in New Providence

516 / Probate Practice and Procedure

before the Registrar or a notary public practising within the Colony.

8. Every testamentary paper referred to in the affidavit to which any

deponent is sworn must be marked by the deponent and by the person

before whom the affidavit is sworn in accordance with Rule 7.

9. An affidavit intended to be used before a Judge must first be filed in

the Registry.

10. No Probate will be issued until after the lapse of fourteen days from

the death of the testator except in a case of urgency when the facts of

such case shall be laid before a Judge on motion in open Court.

11. (1) Where Letters of Administration are applied for, the Registrar

shall, on the filing of the necessary papers, insert a notice of the

application in three successive issues of the Gazette stating that

the application will be set down to be heard by a Judge at the

expiration of the time to be specified in such notice.

(2) The time to be so specified for the setting down for hearing of an

application, in relation to the estate of a deceased person whose

place of residence had been at New Providence, shall not be earlier

than fourteen days from the date of the notice. In relation to the

estate of a deceased person whose place of residence had been on

an Out Island, the Registrar when fixing the time to be specified

in the notice shall allow such period, not less than fourteen days,

as will afford the Court an opportunity for ascertaining whether

notice of the application for Letters had been published at the

Out Island in manner hereafter required.

(3) Letters of Administration, in respect of the estate of a deceased

person whose place of residence had been on an Out Island, shall

not be issued unless and until the Court is satisfied that notice of

the application therefore had been duly advertised at such Out

Island. For this purpose (except in the case hereinafter expressly

provided for) the Registrar shall by the earlier opportunity have

a copy of the Gazette notice of the application sent to the

commissioner of the Out Island with a request that he will cause

the same to be affixed for publication in a conspicuous place near

to the principal door of the police court or magistrate’s office

thereat for a period of at least six days, and that he will forward

by the next return post thereafter a notification of the receipt of

such notice and of its publication.

Provided that it shall not be requisite for the Registrar to send a

copy of the Gazette notice to the Out Island if it is proved to his

satisfaction that the commissioner had already, and before the

filing of the necessary papers in the Registrar’s Office, caused a

clear and sufficient notice to be affixed near to the door of his