Section 8
Section 8
(1)
Upon an adoption order being made, all rights, duties, obligations and liabilities of the parents or guardians of the adopted child, in relation to his future custody, maintenance and education, including all rights to appoint a guardian or to consent or give notice of dissent to marriage shall be extinguished, and all such rights, duties, obligations and liabilities shall vest in and be exercisable by and enforceable against the adopter as though the adopted child is a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock, and in respect of the same matters and in respect of the liability of a child to maintain his parents the adopted child shall stand to the adopter exclusively in the position of a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock.
(2)
If 2 spouses are the adopters, such spouses shall, in respect of the matters mentioned in subsection (1) and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of any court to make orders as to the custody and maintenance of and right of access to children, stand to each other and to the adopted child in the same relation as they would have stood if they had been the lawful father and mother of the adopted child, and the adopted child shall stand to them respectively in the same relation as a child would have stood to a lawful father and mother respectively.
(3)
If, at any time after the making of an adoption order, the adopter or the adopted child or any other person dies intestate in respect of any property, that property shall devolve in all respects as if the adopted child is the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and not the child of any other person.
(4)
In any disposition of any property made after the date of an adoption order —
(a)
any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopter shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as, or as including, a reference to the adopted child;
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(b)
any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopted child’s natural parents or either of them shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as not being, or as not including, a reference to the adopted child; and
(c)
any reference (whether express or implied) to a person related to the adopted child in any degree shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as a reference to the person who would be related to him in that degree if he is the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and is not the child of any other person.
(5)
Where an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child takes any interest in any property under a disposition by the adopter or under any intestacy, or where an adopter takes any interest in any property under a disposition by an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child, or under the intestacy of an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child, any estate or other duty which becomes leviable in respect thereof shall be payable at the same rate as if the adopted child had been a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock.
(6)
For the purposes of any written law for the time being in force in
Brunei Darussalam relating to the provision of compensation to families for loss occasioned by the death of a person caused by actionable wrong, a person shall be deemed to be the parent or child of the deceased person notwithstanding that he is only related to him in consequence of adoption;
and accordingly, in deducing any relationship which under the provisions of any such written law is included within the meaning of the expressions
“parent” and “child”, an adopted child shall be treated as being the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and not the child of any other person.
(7)
Notwithstanding anything in this section, trustees or personal representatives may convey or distribute any property to or among the persons entitled thereto without having ascertained that no adoption order has been made by virtue of which any person is or may be entitled to any interest therein, and shall not be liable to any such person of whose claim they have not had notice at the time of that conveyance or distribution; but nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the right of any such person to follow the property, or any property representing it, into the hands of any person, other than a purchaser, who may have received it.
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(8)
Where an adoption order is made in respect of a child who has been previously adopted, the previous adoption shall be disregarded for the purposes of this section in relation to the devolution of any property on the death of a person dying intestate after the date of the subsequent adoption order and in relation to any disposition made after that date.
(9)
For the purposes of any law relating to marriage, an adopter and the child whom he has been authorised to adopt under an adoption order and all children and adopted children of the adopter shall be deemed to be within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity; and this subsection shall continue to have effect notwithstanding that some person other than the adopter is authorised by a subsequent order to adopt the same child.
(10)
For the purposes of this section, “disposition” means an assurance of any interest in any property by any instrument whether inter vivos or by will.
Interim orders.