(1) A registered society or branch shall not pay any sum of money upon the death of a member or other person whose death is or ought to be entered in any register of deaths, except upon the production of a certificate of that death under the hand of the registrar of deaths or other person having care of the register of deaths in which that death is or ought to be entered.
(2) This section shall not apply to deaths at sea, nor to a death by colliery explosion or other accident where the body cannot be found, nor to any death certified by a coroner or procurator fiscal to be the subject of a pending inquest or inquiry.