OLD LADY'S WILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10296, 3 June 1919, Page 7

OLD LADY'S WILL

BEQUEST TO A CHURCH LEADS TO UNUSUAL LITIGATION. I'ress Association. AUCKLAND, June 2. It occasionally happens that charitable bequests are made to institutions „hich c'.tner do not exist or are wrongly described m testators’ wills, une such case cropped up at the Supreme Court. It concerned a bequest or auout iliUO-J made uy au ola may to a cuurch in England wnicn she had attended many years ago. -An appucation was heard by Air justice Stringer. the piaiuchs bchig tne trustees under the will of the late .Mrs Alary .uni dacsson. or Auckland, widow, and the detendant the Hev. .ulhur mucker, Ticar of Bt. Georgo s enurcu, .\ ewcastle-Under-cyme, Staffordshire, Jonglund. Testator, by her will, lett the whole of her estate, amounting to about £li)v/J, to the senior clergyman ot the Church of Lngland officiating at ••at. -Mary's Church, .Newcastle-Uuder-Lyme,” the money to be used for repairs or additions to tho cnurch. Inquiries were made by the trustees, and >t was found that tnere' was no church called at. Alary s at Nowcastle-Uuder-Lyme, the two churches of the Church or Lngland there being named Bt. George's and Bt. Giles. The c°ur was therefore called upon to decide tho question as to whom should the money be paid. Affidavits made in Lngland were put in showing that mauv years ago before she lett Lngland'the testator regularly attended .st. George’s Church, and that the vicar of bt. Giles was making no claim to the money. On behalf of the plaintiff it was submitted that the bequest being a charitable one, "evidence was admissible to show which church tho testator intended to receive the money, and that even if it were not admitted and tho court applied the “Cypres" doctrine, dividing the money between the two churches in the town, the fact that one church had disclaimed the bequest would mean that St. George s would got tho money. ■ The judge concurred with the views expressed, and ordered the estate to be handed ovet to the defendant, costs to be paid out of the estate.