Succession law in Cameroon: what an estate is governed by

The first question in any Cameroonian estate is not who inherits. It is which law decides who inherits. Three bodies of rules are in play, and a single family can be subject to all three at once.

The three regimes

• Statute law governs registered land, formal wills and the estates of persons who have opted into the written law by the form of their marriage or by will.
• Customary law is recognized, subject to the repugnancy test, and continues to govern a large part of family property, particularly land held without a registered title.
• The common law of succession governs in the North West and South West Regions, where the courts apply precedent and grant letters of administration in the English manner.

Which regime applies to a particular asset depends on the asset, on where it is located, and on the deceased's own position. A businessman in Douala with registered land in the Littoral, family land at Besongabang and shares in an SARL may have all three regimes applied to the same estate.

Wills

A will is the single most effective step available, and it is the step most often left undone. The formal requirements differ between the two systems, and a will valid in one region may be challenged in the other. A will drafted with the location of each asset in mind removes most of the ground on which estates are later contested.

Proving an estate

In the Francophone regions, heirs ordinarily obtain a certificate of heirship (certificat d'heredite) establishing their status. In the Anglophone regions, the personal representative applies for letters of administration, or probate where there is a will. Banks, land registries and company registries will each require the appropriate instrument before they will act.

Company shares

Shares in an SARL do not always pass freely on death. The articles may subject their transfer to the approval of the surviving shareholders, and where they are silent the Uniform Act applies. An estate that contains a controlling interest in a family business is the estate most likely to be litigated, and the articles are where that outcome is decided, years in advance.

Where disputes come from

In practice a small number of causes account for most contested estates:

• Land occupied for decades without a registered title
• A will that does not satisfy the formalities of the region where the property is located
• Company articles that say nothing about the transfer of shares on death
• A marriage celebrated under the polygamous option, where the consequences were not understood
• Children whose parentage was never formally established