Friendly Societies Act, 1896

Intestacy.

58.(1) If any member of a registered society or branch, entitled from the funds thereof to a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, dies intestate and without having made any nomination thereof then subsisting, the society or branch may, without letters of administration, distribute the sum among such persons as appear to a majority of the trustees, upon such evidence as they may deem satisfactory, to be entitled by law to receive that sum, subject, if that sum, after making such deductions as aforesaid, exceeds eighty pounds, to the obtaining from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue a receipt for the succession or legacy duty payable thereon, or a letter or certificate stating that no such duty is payable.

(2) If any such member is illegitimate, the trustees may pay the sum of money which that member might have nominated to or among the persons who, in the opinion of a majority of them, would have been entitled thereto if that member had been legitimate, or if there are no such persons, the society or branch shall deal with the money as the Treasury may direct.