COURTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 2032, 20 December 1907, Page 8

COURTS.

-A SUCCESSION DUTY CASE. Per Press Association. Wellington, December 20. The Appeal Court delivered judgment to-day in re Moore deceased, and Townsend v. Commissioner of Stamps, which involved a payment of some £BO,OOO duty by Mrs Townsend, heiress of the late G. H. Moore, of Glenmark, Canterbury. She claimed that the bulk of the property had been given to her by her father during his life and the Crown claimed death duties on this portion. Judgment was in her favour. Judge Chapman dissenting. Briefly the Court held that the Pi-ivy Council had alredav settled that gifts inter vivos were not evasions of duty merely because the motive was to escape duty so long as the gifts were valid and irrevocable. The evidence was mostly appellant’s own testimony, but there was some corroboration and it was plain that if her evidence was true as to the mode in which tlie_ gifts were made they were also valid and the mortgages and which had passed were not deeds of gift or liable to duty. Justices Williams, Denniston, Cooper, Button and the Chief Justice, all concurred in the judgment. Costs were allowed to appellant, but the amount and also an application for leave to appeal to the Privy Council were held over till next sitting. Auckland, Dcemher 20. Justice Denniston granted a decree nisi in Alfred Thos. Baker v. Florence Isabella Baker, husband’s petition on the ground of adultery.