RECLUSE'S FORTUNE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 59, 31 October 1931, Page 3

RECLUSE'S FORTUNE

(Prfess Assn.-

GRAVE ISSUE RAISED JUDGE MENTIONS DOUBT WHETHER DEATH WAS ACCIDENTAL CLAIM ON FORGED DOCUMENTS

— By Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec Oct 30, 10.20 a.m. LONDON, Thurs. The strange story of John Albert Drinan was carried another stage when Mr. Justice MrCardle gave judgement in favour of the trustees. He said both signatures to the documents purporting to transfer Canadian stock to Haiat were gross and clumsy forgeries. He added that the case raised a grave issue. He could not determine whether Drinan died accidentally or otherwise. The position was all the more serious because -hoth signatures were witnessed by one Charles Beale, who was at one .time employed at the British Consulate at Nice. Both by letter and verbally Beale had asserted that he had seen Drinan sign in the Consulate. This was a gross and fraudulent falsehood. Haiat's son was also formely employed at the Consulate. There were the gravest allegations against him as well as Beale, but neither had ventured to appear in Court. The Judge ordered that all the papers should be sent to the Public Prosecutor. John Drinan, aged 83, was found dead at the foot of some stairs in a boardinghouse in Nice on February 5. He had been living in a very miserly fashion, and some surprise was caused by the size of his estate, which was valued then at £76,0d'0 and was mostly left to poor boxes. One phase of his curious life was revealed in the King's Bench action in which the Public Trustee sought to establish whether stock to the value of £80,000 in the Canadian Pacific Railway, at present in custody of a New York hank, belonged to Drinan's estate or to the estate of J. Haiat, also deceased, who met Drinan in the Riviera in the closing days of Drinan's life. Shortly before his death Haiat instituted an action against the Bank to recover the stock .