Tasty Tuesday

Gay inheritance issue in top court

The issue of whether the surviving partner in a same-s ex relationship is entitled to an inheritance if a partner dies intestate comes before the Constitutional Court next month.

South Africa

The court is being asked to confirm Judge Willie Hartzenberg declaration in the Pretoria High Court that the omission in the Intestate Succession Act of 1987after the word 'spouse' of the words 'or partner in a permanent same-s ex life partnership in which partners have undertaken reciprocal duties of support' was inconsistent with the Constitution. In the issue at hand, according to a Business Day report, Mark Gory, a chef, lived with Henry Brooks in a Johannesburg house in a permanent life partnership in which the couple had undertaken reciprocal duty of support. Brooks died in April last year, a few months before the Constitutional Court ruled that homosexual couples could get married. According to the Intestate Succession Act, if the deceased dies without leaving a will and is survived by a spouse, the spouse will inherit the estate. If there is no spouse but the deceased is survived by both parents, the parents inherit the estate in equal shares. Brooks' parents instructed Daniel Kolver, the executor, to administer Brooks' estate on their behalf. Gory argues that he is the sole heir of the deceased.