A TESTAMENTARY DIFFICULTY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1489, 22 February 1887, Page 4

A TESTAMENTARY DIFFICULTY.

The following is from the Chrittchurch Press: — v When a la>man — or still better, a lay woman — has no skill m accurate writing there is no limit to the poeaibili ties of ambiguity. A testatrix has recently given the Court of Adpeal a very neat little pozzle of this kind to work out. She bequeathed a portion of her property to her '{cousin Harriet Cloak.' That seemed simple enough ; only, unfortunately for its simplicity, she hadn't a cousin Harriet Cloak. There was a Harriet Cloak who wasn't a cousin, and there was a cousin Harriet who waß'nt a Cloak — and yet m a way the Harriet Cloak was a ccusin for ehe had married a couain, and m a way the cousin Harriet was a CLak, because she was a Cloak before she became the wife of a certain Mt Crane. The tning aeemed as near a tie as possible between the claims of the two Harriets. If one Judge decided one way, it was a dead certainty the next Judge who was appealed to would decide the other way. That was exactly what happened. The Court of First Instance decided that •my couain Harriet Cloak ' meant the cousin Harriet whose maiden name was Cloak, and not the Harriet who had only become a cousin and a Cloak by marriage From thia decision there was an appeal which resulted m two of the three Judges reversing the decision of the Court below. The matter could not have beei better balanced, for there were exactly two Judges on each aide The testatrix who produced this neat complication and divided so evenly judicial opinion gains for hereelf a place m the law reports, but the honor is probably dear at the price of that portion of her beque&t whioh will now go to neither of the Harriets, but into the ci.piciouß pockets of the law. After all there is sense m the traditional custom of lawyers, when they meet on festive occasions, of drinking to the health of testators who make their own wills."