AN ECCENTRIC WILL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3668, 21 July 1927, Page 2

AN ECCENTRIC WILL

TIES UP AN ESTATE. Thomas Mollett, who died in Christchurch in 1906, left a will which has had the effect of tying up a large portion of his estate ever since, leading to aecumulati- > ons of interest of £25,000. He be queathed equal shares of the income to his widow, a daughter, and a son, but directed that his son, Thomas Alley Mollet, now of London, should not receive his share •• during the lifetime of his son’s wife. The will directed that during her . lifetime the son should receive only £l5O a year. The testator's widow and daughter have died, and since then the children of the daughter, Mrs Lucreita Dauvergue, of Makihiki, have enjoyed an income from half the estate. The son’s wife is still alive, and the accumulation continues. The testator’s design that the re- ’ striction should operate throughout the lifetime of the wife of Thomas Alley Mollet was upset by the Supreme Court last December, when Mr Justice MacGregor held that under the Thellusson Act, passed in England to terminate a trust under an eccentric will, the testator’s direction affecting the son’s share could not operate after the expiry of 21 years from the date of the testator’s death. The question before the Court was as to the disposal of the income from the accumulated surplus—whether it should revert to the residuary esetate or whether there was, in fact, intestacy in respect of this income. Decision was reserved.