Order 57 FCT (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025

Order 57 of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025 is about Grant of Letters of Administration (Without Will). It contains the following rules:

1. Grant of Letters of Administration (without Will) may be
   applied for and issued where a deceased person died
   without a Will (total intestacy) and so did not appoint
   executors or where some part of his estate is not covered by
   the Will and there is no residuary clause (partial intestacy)
   or where the Will is declared invalid.

2. (1) A Court shall require evidence, in addition to that
   offered by the applicant, where additional evidence in that
   regard seems to the Court necessary or desirable, to
   ascertain:
   (a) the identity of the deceased or of the applicant; or
   (b) the relationship of the applicant to the deceased; or
   (c) any person or persons in existence with a right equal or
   prior to that of the applicant to the grant of probate or
   administration sought by the applicant; or
   (d) any other matter which may be considered by the Court
   relevant to the question whether the applicant is the proper
   person to whom the grant should be made.
   (2) The Court may refuse the grant unless the applicant
   produces any of the requirements in paragraphs (a) – (c) or
   as may be required by the Court.

3. (1) Where it appears to a Court that some person(s) other
   than the applicant may have at least an equal right with the
   applicant to the grant sought, the Court may refuse the
   grant until due notice of the application has been given to
   such other person(s) and an opportunity given for such
   person(s) to be heard on the applicant’s prior right.
   (2) Such other persons ordinarily equally eligible to be
   granted letters of administration by virtue of their affinity
   to the deceased may indicate their acquiescence by writing
   a letter of their consent to the Registrar, accompanied with
   a verifiable means of identification, and a clause in the
   letter shall contain an indemnity in favour of the Registrar
   against liability for acting on such expression of consent.
4. (1) In no circumstance shall a Court issue letters of
   administration until all inquiries which the Court deems fit
   to make have been answered to its satisfaction.
   (2) A Court shall, however, afford reasonable facility for
   the obtaining of letters of administration as is consistent
   with due regard to the prevention of error and fraud.

5. (1) A person seeking for Letters of Administration shall
   give a bond, with at least two sureties, to the Registrar of
   the Court, as a condition for duly collecting, getting in and
   administering the personal property of the deceased, and
   such sureties shall be to the satisfaction of the Registrar.
   (2) A Court may, if it deems fit, take one surety only.
   3) The bond shall be in a penalty of double the amount
   under which the personal estate of the deceased is sworn,
   unless the Court in any case deems it expedient to reduce
   the amount.
   (4) The Court may also in any case direct that more bonds
   than one shall be given, so as to limit the liability of a surety
   to such amount as the Court deems reasonable.

6. (1) Where a person dies, the person(s) entitled to a grant of
   administration without a Will annexed shall be determined
   in the following order of priority –
   (a) The person(s) listed as next-of-kin;
   (b) The spouse;
   (c) The child/children of the deceased;
   (d) The parent(s);
   (e) The sibling(s) of the deceased;
   (f) Any other close relative(s) in the absence of the
   above.

(2) However, in all cases, letters of administration shall be
granted to, at least, two persons as grantees but where the
circumstances warrant for a grant to be made to a single
grantee, the applicant shall make a formal application to
the Registrar, showing good reasons, for his approval to be
a sole grantee for the letters of administration.
(3) To assist the Registrar in determining the appropriate
grantee, in the cases of deceased persons in some formal
employment, the Registrar may require a letter of
confirmation of the next of kin in the employer’s official
records, provided that where the next of kin(s) in such
official records is someone other than the immediate or
nuclear family of the deceased, the Registrar may take into
account any time interval between when the record was made and the time of death as to suggest that change of circumstances could have affected the intention of the deceased.

7. (1) Where the applicant for the grant, resealing or re-issue
   of letters of administration has completed and complied
   with such requirements as may be imposed by the
   Registrar, the Registrar shall cause a publication or
   advertisement of the application to be made in one
   newspaper widely circulating in Nigeria, stating the
   pendency of the application for grant, resealing or re-issue
   of letters of administration in respect of the estate of the
   named deceased in favour of named applicants, and calling
   for any objection thereto, if any, to be made to the Registrar
   within twenty-one (21) days of the date of publication.

(2) Where any objection is entered in response to the
publication above, the Registrar shall immediately cease to
act on the application and communicate this fact to the
applicants and fix a date for hearing both the applicant and
the objector and if the Registrar considers that the objection
raises substantial issues sufficient to uphold it and his
mediation did not bring agreement between the objector
and applicant, he shall refer the parties to the court for
adjudication.
(3) An objection may be lifted if the objector withdraws it or
the objector and the applicant for grant comes to an
agreement, or after reasonable time, not being less than 14
days inclusive of the day of service, the objector failed to
answer a summons by the Registrar to enable him justify
the entering of the objection.

8. The grant of letters of administration under this Order shall
   be signed by the Chief Judge or a Judge designated by him.
9. Where letters of administration was granted and it
   subsequently comes to the notice of the Registrar that a
   prior letters of administration or probate has been granted
   in respect of the same deceased’s estate, but at the time of applying for the subsequent grant the grantees, whether advertently or inadvertently, omitted to disclose the existence of the prior letters of administration, the Registrar shall revoke the letters of administration or probate later in time.

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