INTERESTING WILL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10152, 23 December 1910, Page 5

INTERESTING WILL CASE.

JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANT.

By Telegraph — Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night.

The final stages of the iti.i will case, commenced in the . Supreme Court last Saturday, before Mr Justice Cooper, were reached this afternoon. The question at issue was as to the mental condition of the late Herbert Hill, pipe manufacturer, Wellington, at the time he made his will disposing of his estate worth between £14,000 "and £15,000. George, Samuel, Herbert and Thomas Hill, sons of the deceased, were the plaintiffs in the. : case, and Mr Oswald Beere, solicitor, Welling : tori, executor of the will, was defendant, for whom Mr Myers appeared.

Plaintiffs asked that the probate of the document be revoked and a declaration made that the deceased died intestate.

Mr Dunn, addressing the Court, urged that the ultimate onus of the proof of the sanity of the testator lay upon those who desired to prove the will.

Mr Justice Cooper said it had already been decided that that was not the-law in New Zealand. That was decided in the case of Edgcumhe v. Edgcumbe in 1896. He agreed with that judgment. In this case the will had already been proved, and plaintiffs desired to upset it, and the burden was on the plaintiffs to prove that the testator was not in a condition to make his will. Mr Dunn went on to review the evidence, and made a point that the deceased had stated that the property was worth £IO,OOO, whereas it had been proved to be worth about £14,500.

His Honour: "I don't pay much attention to that because one knows that Government valuations are often excessive."

Mr Myers stated that there were new valuations after his death for the purpose of probate. Mr Dunn went on .to urge at length that the late Mr Hill was not in a fit state to make a will.

Without calling on Mr Myers, His Honour said he could not set aside the will, and he gave judgment for the defendant.