Cole v Cole

Facts

A Nigerian whose personal law was customary died intestate, having contracted a Christian marriage. The question was whether English law or customary law distributed the estate.

Issue

Does a Christian marriage opt the spouses, and their children, out of customary law entirely?

Held

Griffith J applied English law. A Christian marriage, he said, clothes the parties and their offspring with a status unknown to native law.

Principle

The extreme view: the marriage selects the general law for the whole of life, including succession.

Why it matters

Smart rejects it. Prefer Smith v Smith and Coleman v Shang. The Devolution of Estates Act 2007 has in any event overtaken the intestacy result.

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