Administration and Probate Act 1935

An executor of a sole or last surviving executor of a testator is the executor of that testator. This provision shall not apply to an executor who does not prove the will of his testator, and, in case of an executor who on his death leaves surviving him some other executor of his testator who afterwards proves the will of that testator, it shall cease to apply on such probate being granted.

So long as the chain of such representation is unbroken, the last executor in the chain is the executor of every preceding testator.

The chain of such representation is broken by – an intestacy; the failure of a testator to appoint an executor; or the failure to obtain probate of a will – but is not broken by a temporary grant of administration if probate is subsequently granted.

Where the chain of representation to a testator is broken any beneficiary, or person claiming through a deceased beneficiary, whether at law or in equity, under the will of the testator, may appoint a trust corporation to be executor of the testator, and the acceptance of the appointment constitutes the trust corporation executor of the testator as if the chain of representation had not been broken.

A trust corporation is not under any obligation to accept an appointment under subsection (3A).

Every person in the chain of representation to a testator – has the same rights in respect of the real and personal estate of that testator as the original executor would have had if living; and is, to the extent to which the estate, whether real or personal, of that testator has come to his hands, answerable as if he were an original executor.