CLAIMANT’S DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1928, Page 4

CLAIMANT’S DEATH

ON EVE OK SUCCESS. SYDNEY, April 12. Tile teutral figure in one of I lie most rciiiiirknlile and romantic Equity Court, actions ever heard in Australia. Mrs Mary Scales died in Sydney the other day on the eve of the conclusion ol a long legal battle for Hie possession ol CfoJiOO. In their early life. Mr and Mrs Scales earned the money by washing ami cleaning mau-o’-war hammocks, and from this Mrs Scales saved. She told the Equity Court when her case .slartc, l six years ago I lie amazing fat-i, that all her savings she buried in linking powder Oils in the liacKyard of her home at Ashficld. In this way she saved L*l2,ooi>. She could not read and she could uiiic* <>nlv her own name. Nevertheless, she conducted her own act ion before the Courts. The Court’s decision concerning a large sum of money invested hy her hu-slumd went against her, as did an appeal to the I* nil t oiirt. Mrs Scales then went In England and made an appeal to the I’rnv Council, which held that eerlnin money she had given her husband should pass to her. Mrs Seales was |„ have appeared before the Equity Court in New South Wales again Ibis week to ask 'ihat- the decision ol the Privy Council should he given effect to. Mrs Scab's was reputed to have been “a fortune teller" and she stated in Court that she had earned ,-->S O!!0 when she billowed ibis calling'in the city. Her death removes one of the most remarkabe figures in tin' legal history of the State.