National Security (War Deaths) Regulations (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1944. No. 150.

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REGULATIONS UNDER THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT 1939-1943.*

I, THE ADMINISTRATOR of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the National Security Act 1939-1943.

Dated this twelfth day of October, 1944.

W. DUGAN

Administrator.

By His Excellency’s Command,

for and on behalf of the Minister of State for Defence.

 

Amendments of the National Security (War Deaths) Regulations.

Cancellation and correction of certificates.

1. Regulation 8 of the National Security (War Deaths) Regulations is amended by omitting paragraph (b) of sub-regulation (1.) and inserting in its stead the following paragraph:—

“(b)a certificate of death on war service ceases to be in accord with the information available in the relevant Department;”.

2. The National Security (War Deaths) Regulations are amended by adding at the end thereof the following regulation:—

Proof of life on information available after issue of certificate of death.

“9.—(1.) A competent authority may issue a certificate stating that, from information available in the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Army, the Department of Air, the Department of Civil Aviation or the Department of Supply and Shipping, as the case may require, there is reason to believe that the person named in a certificate of death on war service is or may be alive.

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on  , 1944.

  Statutory Rules 1942, No. 473, as amended by Statutory Rules 1943, No. 135; and 1944, No. 100.

5964.—Price 3d. 8/21.9.1944.

“(2.) A certificate issued under this regulation shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the law of any State or Territory of the Commonwealth or any probate or letters of administration granted under any such law, but subject to the effect of any certificate of death issued subsequently to the issue of the certificate under this regulation, in all courts and before all persons acting judicially be prima facie evidence that the person named in the certificate is alive.

“(3.) Any person who, acting in good faith in reliance on a certificate under this regulation, pays any money or transfers any property to a person who is entitled to receive the money or property on the assumption that the person named in the certificate is alive, shall obtain a good discharge in respect of that money or property and, in the event of the person named in the certificate being in fact dead, shall not be subject to any liability, civil or criminal, in connexion with that money or property, to which he would not have been subject had the person named in the certificate been alive at the date of the payment or transfer.

“(4.) A certificate may be issued under this regulation although the certificate of death on war service previously issued has not been cancelled, and thereafter the certificate of death on war service shall, subject to the next succeeding sub-regulation, be of no force or effect.

“(5.) A certificate under this regulation shall not in any way affect the rights of any person acting, without knowledge of the issue of the certificate, in reliance on a certificate of death on war service previously issued.

“(6.) Regulation 8 of these Regulations shall apply to and in relation to certificates issued under this regulation in the same manner as it applies to and in relation to certificates of death on war service.”.

 

By Authority: L. F. Johnston, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.