IN CHANCERY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 53, 26 November 1926, Page 10

IN CHANCERY

THIRTEEN YEARS’ BATTLE

RUSSIAN PRINCESS’S

LEGACY TO NEW ZEALAND RELATIVE Dominion Special. Auckland, November 25. Tin: experience of bringing to a virtual settlement, after thirteen years, a legal struggle, involving the legacy of a Russian princess' to a lady relative in New Zealand, for whom he has acted, enabled Mr. D. Stewart, a solicitor practising in Richmond, Nelson, to oiler, on bis return from England by the Arawa to-day, a few comments on the ways of the Court of Chancery. Although he has practicallv retired from the profession, Mr. Stewart went to England partly for health reasons and partly to further the interests of his client. The delays of thirteen years had prepared him for procedure somewhat out of the usual order, but actual experience of the Court revealed conditions more strange than he expected. Mr. Stewart found that there were six Judges, each receiving a salary of £5OOO a vear, and a number of masters, whose efforts throughout the year arc compensated at the rate of £l6OO each. There were also a number of registrars, whom Mr. Stewart did not count, but he learned that the Court had a' summer vacation of two and a half months, besides other vacations throughout the year. “In my opinion t’lie Judges are much overpaid,’’ said Mr. Stewart, “and I think the work could be done efficiently with half the present personnel.” The particular contribution with which Mr. Stewart added to the cares of the Court between vacations; concerned the London estate of Princess Alexa Dulgrouki, which remained to her after the successors to the Tsarist regime had helped themselves to various mine properties. Mr. Stewart learned before leaving England that the master who was dealing with the problem had made a report, in which he recommended to the Judge to whom it would be passed along that Mr. Stewart’s client was entitled to the personal effects and half the residuarv estate. This would bring the client up to about £lO,OOO, and Mr. Stewart believes that the Judge will most likelv bring the thirteen years battle to a close by agreeing to the recommendation.