Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

NAVIGATION ACT 1912 - SECT 158

             (1)  A creditor shall not be entitled to claim from the Authority any property of a deceased seaman by virtue of representation obtained as creditor.

             (2)  A creditor shall not be entitled to obtain payment of his or her debt out of the property, if the debt accrued more than 3 years before the death of the deceased, or if the demand is not made within 2 years after the death.

             (3)  The demand shall be made by the creditor delivering to the Authority an account in writing, in a form approved by the Authority by instrument in writing, and verified by a statutory declaration.

             (4)  If, before the demand is made, any claim to the property of the deceased made by any person has been allowed, the Authority shall give notice to the creditor of the allowance of the claim.

             (5)  If no claim has been allowed, the creditor shall satisfy the Authority as to the justice of his or her account, and the Authority may then pay over to the creditor such sum as it allows, and the Authority shall thereby be discharged from all further liability in respect of the money so paid; but otherwise the demand shall be disallowed.

             (6)  In any case the Authority may delay the investigation of any demand made by a creditor for the payment of his or her debt for one year from the time of the first delivery of the demand; and if in the course of that time a claim to the property of the deceased is made by any person who was the deceased's spouse or de facto partner immediately before the deceased's death, or who is the deceased's next of kin, or legatee, and allowed by the Authority under this Act, the Authority may pay and deliver it to that person.

             (7)  Where the property has been paid and delivered by the Authority to any person who was the deceased's spouse or de facto partner immediately before the deceased's death, or who is the deceased's next of kin, or legatee of the deceased or as consul of the country of which the deceased was a subject, whether before or after the demand made by the creditor, the creditor shall have the same rights and remedies against that person as if he or she had received the property as the legal personal representative of the deceased.

             (8)  In determining for the purposes of subsections (6) and (7) whether a person is next-of-kin of another person, the following persons are also to be taken into account:

                     (a)  someone who is the child of the person, or of whom the person is the child, because of the definition of child in this Act;

                     (b)  anyone else who would be a relative of the person because someone mentioned in paragraph (a) is taken into account.