STRANGE WILL CASE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 219, 14 March 1912, Page 7

STRANGE WILL CASE

ROMANTIC STORY. INTERESTING "POINTS OF LAW. I A story with a tincture of romance t I was unfolded at the Supreme Court . | yesterday morning during the hearing of 0 | the preliminary stages of a civil action r | involving the validity of a bequest made s under a will. Plaintiff, who is named . as a beneficiary under the will in question, is Mrs. Amelia Kay, of Wellington, f and was represented by Mr. A. H. John--1 ston (instructed by Messrs. O'Regan and . Dix, of Wellington). She is proceeding - against the executors of the will of Mrs. [ Elizabeth de la Roche, deceased, in re- : speet of a bequest of £IOO. The execul tors of the estate were represented by . Mr. Roy, who applied on cross summons ) for the dismissal of an originating suml mons in connection with the suit brought • on at the instance of the plaintiff. It , appears that before her marriage, about s thirty years ago, testatrix, Elizabeth de s la Roche (then Elizabeth Crompton) . came to live with her brother, then un- ■ j married, at his farm at Omdta, keep- ■ ing house for him for about ten years. { bhc then married and went to live at j Napier, and later on at Wellington, where she resided for about thirty I years, never having in the interval re- ; visited the scenes of her early life In the course of time her husband died. Towards the end of her life (she was over /2 at the time of her demise) Mrs' | de la Roche (who was a childless widow I without relatives 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 she came to her old home at Omata to pass the last of her days there with her deceased brother's Wife. She was then very bright and cheerful, and frequently expressed her '.pleasure at being once more on the old homestead. On the Sunday following, however, she went'to her room, as she was then suffering from a slight attack of asthma, remaining m bed on Monday and Tues- : day, and, as the attack was passing off, J she expected to get up on Wednesday. I 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 his certificate that she 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, lHe bequest was, however, made subject to the express condition that the plaintiff was to have "well and faithfully nursed me and attended 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 I given rise to the litigation, and with it two very interesting points of law. The executors refused to give any effect to the bequest, holding (1) that at the time of her death Mrs. de la Roche was not a lodger m the plaintiff's house, and (2)i that she never hao\a "last illness" within the meaning of the condition in ier TjrJl, simply passing away in her sleep. \ inese 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 had not ceased to be a lodger of Mrs Kays. The defendant executors urge' on the other hand, that the deceased lady had intended to stay with her sis- | ter-in-law at Omata for the rest of her life. The proceedings at yesterday's sitting of the. Court, which disclosed the 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 New Plymouth. The question of costs was "reserved.