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Escheat Ordinance (Cap. 20).

Country/Territory
Sierra Leone
Document type
Legislation
Date
1886 (1922)
Source
FAO, FAOLEX
Long title
An Ordinance to provide for the appropriation of the casual revenue of the Crown arising from escheated estates, and to declare the law and practice in cases of Escheat.
Subject
Land & soil
Keyword
Expropriation Legal proceedings/administrative proceedings Inheritance Ownership Abandoned land/unoccupied land Transfer Cadastre/land registration
Geographical area
Africa, Least Developed Countries, North Atlantic, Western Africa
Abstract

This Act makes provision with respect to the procedure of escheat of property, i.e. the appropriation of any casual revenues arising within the Colonies or Foreign Possessions of the Crown (other than Droits of the Crown and Droits of the Admiralty) for or towards any public purposes within the Colonies or Possessions in which the same respectively may have arisen, including the revenue to arise from the estates and effects of persons who have died intestate and without heirs or next of kin. The Governor in Council may from time to time, after such appropriation, order the payment of any claim in respect of such casual revenues. If a claim is not accepted, the claimant may present the petition to the Supreme Court. No land shall be escheated to the Crown which has been in the undisturbed possession of any person or of such person and his predecessors for the term of twenty years immediately preceding the filing of any claim by the Attorney General. The Registrar General may refuse to register any deed or instrument relating to any of the lands declared to be vested in the Crown unless and until a grant from the Crown of such lands, subsequent to such escheat, shall have been produced and registered.

Full text
English
Website
www.sierra-leone.org