A CHARITABLE BEQUEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1919, Page 6

A CHARITABLE BEQUEST.

STRANGE ERROR IN A WILL, Auckland, June 2. It occasionally happens that charitable bequests are made to institutions which either do not exist or are wrongly described in testators' wills. One such •case cropped up at the Supreme Court to-day. It concerned the bequest of about £IOOO, made by an old lady to a church in England which she had attended many years ago. The application was heard by Mr Justice Stringer. The plaintiffs were the trustees under the will of the late Mrs Mary Ann Jackson, of Auckland, widow, and the: defendant was the Rev. Arthur Stacker, vicar of St. George's Church, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. The testator, by her will, left the whole of her estate, amounting to about £IOOO, to the senior clergyman of the Church of England, officiating at "St. Mary's Church, BTewcastle-under-Lyme," the i money to be used for repairs or additions to the church. Inquiries were made by the trustees, and it was found that there was no church called St. Mary's at Newcastle-under-Lyme, the two churches of the "Church of England there being named St. George's and St. Giles,'. The Court was, therefore, called upon to decide the question to whom the money should be paid. > Affidavits made in England were put in, showing that many years ago, before she left England, the testator regularly attended St. George's Church, and that | the vicar of St. 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 admissable to show which church the testator intended to receive the money, and tliat even if it were not admitted and the Court applied the ";y pres" doctrine, dividing th? money between the "two churches in the town, the fact that one church had disclaimed the bequest would mean that St. George's would get the money. Mr Justice Stringer concurred with th* views expressed, and ordered the estate to be handed over to the defendant, the costs to be paid out of the estate.