WOMAN'S WILL

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 24, 29 January 1934, Page 13

WOMAN'S WILL

ECCENTRIC BUT VALID

TRUST TO DE VALERA

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, December 14,

Mr. Eiinion do Valera, President of the Executive Council of tho Irish Freo State, was the ,plaintiff in .1 probate action heard in London. Mr; do Valera, as executor, propounded a will of Mias Fitzpßtriek dated March 12, 1932,, by which she gave and bequeathed to Mr. do Valera "my house and all my furniture and effects," and, inter alia, directed that '.'no person claiming to be related or related to mo is to have any money or property or effects belonging to me," and "I wish all money arid debts due to me to be collected by my executor after my death." The defendant, Mr. John FitZpatriek, of Dublin, a brother cf Miss Fitzpatrick, put the plaintiff to proof of due execution, and said that Miss Fitzpatrick was not of sound mind, memory, and understanding, and did not know and approve of the contents of the will. During tho proceedings it.was stated that Mr, do Valera intended, .to-.use the legacy as n trust for public ; purposos of tho kind which would havo , been approved by the testatrix.-. j The ease was heard by Mr. Justice Batcson. . AN ECCENTRIC CHARACTER. Mr. Herbert \V. Port, a solicitor, of !.Brighton, who witnessed the will of 1932, cross-examined Mr, Hector. Hughes, K.C., who appeared. for the defondant, said that, when the. testatrix called on,him with.reference to thd will, he thought her eccentric, and quaint in dress aud general appearance. Ho would not say that she was abnormal. She was rather different from the ordinary run of people. It did not appear to him that she-had a disordered mind. 1 In re-examination, Mr. Port said that the testatrix was quite out of fashion. Mr. Justice Bateson: Victorian?— Yes. Mr. Leslie Montague. Williams, solicitor, of Brighton, who was consulted by the testatrix in 1931' when she- made a will in favour of Cardinal Bourne, cross-examined, said that Miss .Fitzpatrick spoke and behaved rationally. He did not know that she had been in the habit of making wills in favour of people" whose names she read in the papers and of fictitious characters, and then tearing up the wills. Mrs. Maud Emery, of Bermondsey, giving evidence for the defence, said that as a girl she was parlourmaid in tho employment, of tho late Lady D'Arey.de Knayth and Conyers (who in 1922 left the testatrix an annuity of £200). Tho testatrix frequently made wills, and used to say that she was making out a will in favour of someone whom she admired, and of whom she had read in a book or newspaper. NO LIKING TOR DOCTORS. Police Inspector Boxail, of Brighton, said that on Juno 23, .1932, the, police forced an entrance into Miss Fitzpatrick's house because neighbours had heard groans. He saw Miss Fitzpatriek, who said that she had a bad leg. Ho suggested calling in a doctor, but she replied, "No; I /hate doctors and all other men." Mr, Justice Batcson said he was satisfied that the testatrix was of perfectly sound mind, memory! and understanding. Tfee defendant had complete-j ly failed to make out his case, and had Hot even gone into the witness-box. It ivas said, among other things, that the testatrix was incompetent to tnake a will because she refused medical and jlerical aid when she was ill, but a lot 3f people did not like doctors or clergymen. Apart from the will in favour of Cardinal Bourne and that of 1932, there \vas no evidence of her making any other will—iii favour of fictitious characters or cnyone else. There was only evidence that sho had written down on pieces of paper something about leaving her money to various people^ . , His Lordship, pronounced for the will of 1932, with costs against the defendant.

' Among those who have been spending a holiday at the Portage, Marlborough Sounds, and who returned horne1 at the weekend -yverc Mr. arid Mrs. W. Campbell, Miss I. Piper, Miss A, Compton, Miss D. Carstens, Mr.' and Mrs. L. Carstens, Mrs. W. C. Walker, Miss Marie Walker, Miss Marjorie Walker, Miss P. Ross, Mr. L. H. Chatwin, Mrs. K. B. Johnson, Miss M. Johnson, Mr. L. Williams, Mr. F. Fordham, ana Mrs. Fordham (all of Wellington), Mr. and Mrs. M. Armstrong, Mrs. Armstrongs sen., Mrs. A. Fencrty, and Miss D, Dalrymple (all of Christcnurch), and Mr. and Mrs. T. Kirkwood (Stratford). .- .