Manitoba Law Reform Commission Consultation Report on Presumption of Death Act

The Manitoba Law Reform Commission has released its Consultation Report on Improving Manitoba’s Presumption of Death Act. 

From the Executive Summary:

"Presumption of death legislation is not to be confused with survivorship or missing persons legislation. Survivorship legislation prescribes the order of death when two or more persons die in circumstances in which the order of death cannot be determined. Missing persons legislation provides access to records for the purpose of searching for a missing person. In contrast to both of these type of legislation, presumption of death legislation allows courts to issue orders declaring someone to be presumed dead so that the estate of the missing person may be administered, insurance proceeds may be paid out, or a spouse may remarry. Manitoba has statutes which deal separately with survivorship, missing persons and presumption of death."

"All Canadian jurisdictions have some form of presumption of death legislation regardless of whether or not the relevant legislative provisions are restricted, in their application, to specific statutory contexts or are laws of general application, or both. It would appear that the presumption of death legislation found in most other Canadian jurisdictions has been significantly amended since originally enacted. Conversely, Manitoba’s Presumption of Death Act has not been amended since first enacted in 1968. The purpose of this Consultation Report is to recommend improvements to Manitoba’s Presumption of Death Act in order to put it on par with presumption of death legislation found other Canadian jurisdictions."

The report:

• outlines the history and background which led up to the enactment of the Presumption of Death Act in Manitoba
• canvasses the need for reform with reference to legislation in other jurisdictions
• provides a summary of additional matters considered or reviewed by the Commission during its study of the Act, but about which it has made no recommendations
• provides a summary of the Commission’s provisional recommendations.

Since this is part of a consultation process, comments  are being invited and should reach the Commission by September 8, 2015.