PUBLIC TRUSTEE ACT 1941 - SECT 10
PUBLIC TRUSTEE ACT 1941 - SECT 10
10 . Public Trustee may apply for order for administration of estate of deceased person
(1) Where any person
has heretofore died or hereafter dies, or is reasonably supposed to have died
testate or intestate in or out of Western Australia, leaving property in
Western Australia, the Court may, on the application of the Public Trustee,
grant to the Public Trustee an order to administer the estate of such deceased
person in any of the following cases —
(a)
where such person dies testate, but leaves no executor willing and capable of
acting in execution of his will resident within the jurisdiction;
(ab)
where such person dies intestate, and the person first entitled to the
administration of his estate is unwilling to act or incapable of acting in
such administration or is not resident within the jurisdiction: Provided that
if some other person in the State who, if it were not for this paragraph,
would be entitled to such administration applies for such administration, then
the Court may grant administration to such person;
(b)
where the executor renounces probate of the will of the deceased and all the
persons first entitled to administration by writing filed in the office of the
Court decline to apply for administration;
(c)
where probate or administration is not applied for within 3 months after the
death of such person;
(d)
where, after the expiration of 30 days from such death, there appears to the
Court to be no reasonable possibility of application being made within such
period as aforesaid;
(e)
where the estate or any portion thereof is unprotected or liable to waste and
the executor or a person who was married to, or living as the de facto partner
of, the deceased immediately before the death of the deceased or next of kin
is absent from the locality of the estate or of such portion thereof or is not
known or has not been found;
(f)
where the estate or any substantial portion thereof is of a perishable nature
or is in danger of being lost or destroyed;
(g) in
any other case where the Court considers it expedient or proper.
(2) The Court may in
any case require the Public Trustee to give such notices or cite such persons
or produce such evidence as it may think fit before granting the order applied
for, and may make the order subject to restrictions or conditions, or, in
cases coming within the provisions of subsection (1)(e) or (f), make a
temporary order only, or one limited to a portion of the estate.
(3) A grant under this
section shall, subject to this Act and to any restrictions which the Court may
impose, give to the Public Trustee the same powers, rights and obligations in
respect of the estate concerned as he would have under letters of
administration. Subject to the provisions of this Act, all laws now or
hereafter in force in reference to the administration of estates of deceased
persons shall apply to the administration of estates by the Public Trustee and
the estate of the deceased shall vest in the Public Trustee.
(4) Where a grant of
probate or administration (in this subsection referred to as the original
grant) has been made in respect of the estate of any deceased person (in this
subsection referred to as the original estate) and the persons to whom the
original grant, or any subsequent or substituted grant of probate or
administration was made, have died, or hereafter die, leaving part of the
original estate unadministered, and the gross value of the part of the
original estate so left unadministered at the time of the election hereinafter
mentioned does not exceed the sum of $10 000, as estimated by the Public
Trustee, and no person has since the death of the last executor or
administrator taken out letters of administration de bonis non in respect of
the original estate, the Public Trustee may, in all cases where he is entitled
to apply for an order to administer, in lieu of obtaining such order, file in
the office of the Court an election in writing setting forth the fact of the
original grant, the death of the executors or administrators, and the
particulars of the property so left unadministered, and electing to administer
the property so left unadministered.
(5) On such election
being filed, the Public Trustee shall be deemed to be administrator of the
original estate left unadministered in all respects as if letters of
administration de bonis non had been regularly granted to him.
(6) He shall publish
in the Gazette a notice that he has made such election, and such notice shall
be conclusive evidence that he is rightfully entitled to administer de bonis
non .
[Section 10 amended: No. 12 of 1947 s. 3; No. 64
of 1968 s. 6; No. 25 of 1978 s. 3; No. 67 of 1979 s. 58; No. 3 of 2002 s. 98.]