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ConCourt to rule on gay estates
23/08/2006 20:16 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court will hear an application On Thursday on whether life partners in a same-sex relationship can inherit intestate estates as though they were spouses.
The court's senior registrar, Martie Stander, said on Wednesday that the case of Mark Gory versus Daniel Gerhardus Kolver and others was due to be heard on Thursday.
"Earlier this year the Pretoria High Court declared section 1(1) of the Intestate Succession Act... to be unconstitutional in so far as it does not provide for a permanent same-sex life partner to inherit automatically, as a spouse would, when the other partner dies without a will," said Stander.
"This is an application for confirmation of the high court order that the words 'or partner in a permanent same-sex life partnership in which the partners have undertaken reciprocal duties of support' be read in after the word 'spouse', wherever it appears in the section."
The case arose from the death of Henry Harrison Brooks, who died without leaving a will. Gory was his partner.
Brooks' parents appointed Kolver as executor of the estate and claimed their son's assets as his intestate heirs.
Gory challenged this on the basis of his relationship with Brooks.
The Pretoria court ruled in favour of Gory, saying the exclusion of same-sex life partners from inheritance in such circumstances was unconstitutional.
Kolver applied for leave to appeal against the Pretoria High Court order removing him as executor. This is opposed by Gory, who wants the order to be confirmed as it stands.
Stander said there was also an application to intervene in the matter by Elrida Starke and her three sisters, whose late brother was allegedly a partner in another same-sex life partnership.
"There is a dispute between the four sisters and their late brother's alleged same-sex life partner as to who the lawful heir of the intestate estate is."
The sisters argue that if the order is confirmed, they will be disinherited and any confirmation of the order should not be backdated. Their late brother's partner has argued in favour of the order.
Sapa
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