Determining who died first in a catastrophic disaster or accident can have significant consequences in regards to the estate and beneficiaries of the deceased.
In Mandin Estate, Justice Sulatycky of the Alberta Court of Appeal wrote that commorient means:
"... circumstances where two or more persons die at or about the same time and it is not possible to determine the order of death."
Most jurisdictions have statutes that contain a presumption of commorient death in order of seniority. The jurisdiction of British Columbia, in Canada, has a survivorship law which, at §2, states the rule:
"... if 2 or more persons die at the same time or in circumstances that make it uncertain which of them survived the other or others, those deaths are, for all purposes affecting the title to property, presumed to have occurred in the order of seniority, and accordingly the younger is deemed to have survived the older."
Prior to 1925, in England, beneficiaries had to fight it out and leave the court in the unenviable position of ruling which person died first. But §184 of the British Law and Property Act 1925 changed that and influenced other Commonwealth and common law jurisdictions:
"In all cases where, after the commencement of this Act, two or more persons have died in circumstances rendering it uncertain which of them survived the other or others, such deaths shall (subject to any order of the court), for all purposes affecting the title to property, be presumed to have occurred in order of seniority, and accordingly the younger shall be deemed to have survived the elder."
REFERENCES:
- Mandin Estate v Willey 160 DLR 4th 36 (1996In , ABCA)
- Re Currie 41 D.L.R. (2d) 666 (1963, BCSC)
- Re Fair 12 DLR 3d 755 (1971, NS) and 17 DLR 3d 751 (NSCA)
- Re Topliss 7 DLR 2d 719 (1957)
- Survivorship and Presumption of Death Act, Revised Statutes of British Columbia 1996, Chapter 444