INTERPRETATION OF A WILL!

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 225, 17 June 1919, Page 6

INTERPRETATION OF A WILL!

A CHURCH TRUST-FUND. Sitting in. Chambers yesterday afternoon, His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert. Stout) heard the case of the Prea-' byterian Church Property Trustees v. William Henry Foster. Mr. G. Watson appeared for the plaintiff trustees. This was an originating summons to interpret the will of William Good, deceased. Good died on March 1, 1912, leaving a will dated June 13, 1908, and a. codicil dated December S, 1911. Probate of the will was granted to tlio executor, W. H. Foster. The sole survivor of Sarah Walker Good, James Kenneth Pa ton and Mary Paton, mentioned in the' will, was Sarah .Walker Good. In the will it was stated that the testator was desirous of establishing a fund in connection with the Presbyterian Church, and that the income from certain funds should be applied in providing regular relijrious services in certain parts of the North Island, or towards employing an evangelist in connection with the said Church. The questions submittal for the decision of the Court were-Whether within the meaning of the trust in favour of the / plaintiff trustees contained in the will,' the fund to be raised l.y the plaintiff trustees must all be raised subsequent to the death and within the period of five vears (or the twelve months' extension of the period of five years provided bv the will) from the date nf the death of the survivor of Sarah Walker Good, James Kenneth Paton, and Mary Paton, or whether such fund can in conformity with the said trust be raised at any time durins the lifetime of such survivor. Whether, if the plaintiff trustees procead to raise the wild fund during the life-time of the survivor of the said Sarah Walker Goml. James Kenneth Pnhm and Jfnry Paton and succeed in raisins such fund before the expiration of five years, the plaintiff trustees would be entitled, upon the dentil of such survivor, to receive the trust fund created by.the will of deceased, and to apply the same, tojotber with the fund so raised by the plaintiff trustees, to the purpose named V the will of the deceased. . His Honour, after hearins argument, reserved his decision.