STRANGE WILL CASE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 67, 14 March 1912, Page 5

STRANGE WILL CASE.

ROMANTIC STORY DISCLOSED L\ i SUPREME COURT. , Interesting points of law. . A story with a tincture of romance , " Jis unfolded at the Supreme Court - yesterday morning during the hearing - of the preliminary stages of -a civil , action involving the validity of a hequest made under a will, says the News. Plaintiff, who is named as a beneficiary under the will in question, is Mrs Amelia Kay, of Wellington, and was represented by Mb A. H. Johnston (instructed by Messrs, O’R-s----gan and Di f x, of Wellington.) ,Sht :s proceeding against the\e.xecutons >of the will of Mrs Elizabeth de la Roche, deceased, in respect of a bequest ,ol ■ £IOO. The executors of the' -estate - were represented by Mr Royjifußo ap- ■ r •plied on cross summons for 'tlre ,; ' missal of- an originating summons in connection jwitb suit -brought on | hti -the instanp|[eT;|thp plaiirfifj’. Tt - appeal s that before her marriage, about thirty years agd, : - 'testatrix. Elizabeth de la Roche (then Elizabeth Crompton) came to live vjith her brother, then unmarried, far!if hi Oinata, keeping house for him for about ten years. She then married and went to live at Napier, and later oil- at; she -'resided lor aboh’t 1 thirty ycqrs, never, having in the interval revisited the scenes of her early life. In the course o-jr; time her husband died. Towards the one of her life (she was'over 72 at the time of her demise) Mrs de la Roche (who was a childless w idow without relative* in Wellington, and had but few personal friends there) more than once complained of loneliness, expressing a wish to return to Omata and to be buried in the cemetery there beside her brother and sister. Accordingly, on Thursday, March 9, of last year °siic came to her old home at Omata to pass the last of her days there with nor deceased brother’s wife. She uas then very bright and cheerful, and frequently expressed her pleasure at being once more on the old home-Si-cad. On the Sunday following, however, she went to her room, as sue was then suffering from a slight attack of asthma, remaining in bed on Monday and Tuesday, and, as the attack w-as passing off, she expected to get Up on Wednesday. On the. Wednesday morning, however, she was found dead, she having (medical evidence showed) passed away quietly in her sleep. A medical practitioner was called in, and gave bis certificate that ;; he had died from natural causes. Before she left Wellington, however, Mrs de la Roche made a will, in which she made a -bequest of £IOO to plaintiff, with whom she had -been lodging in that city. The bequest was, however, made subject to the express condition that the plaintiff was to have “well and faithfully nursed me and attend to my personal wants and comforts during my last illness, and if I die while a lodger in her house.” It is this condition which has given rise to the litigation and with it two very interesting points of law. Executors refused to give any effect to the bequest, holding (1) that at the time of her death Mrs do la Roche was not a lodger in the plaintiff’s house, and (2) that she never had a “last illness” within the moaning of the condition in her will, simply passing away in her sleep. Those contentions are disputed -by the plaintiff, who, it is understood, while admitting the facts of her journey to and death at Omata, alleges that in effect she bad not censed to be a lodger of Mrs Kay’s. The defendant executors urge, on the other hand, that the deceased lady had intended. to stay with her sister-in-law at Omata for the rest of her life. The proceedings at yesterday's sitting of the Court, which disclosed tho above story, did not last long, his Honor making an order that questions of fact arising from the summons be tried on oral evidence before a judge alone, and that the summons be placed in the list of actions for trial at the ‘ next sittings of the Court at Now | Plymouth. The question of costs was I •■oserved.