INTERPRETATION OF A WILL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 8, 9 July 1914, Page 2

INTERPRETATION OF A WILL

AN MTERESTING CASE. Mr. Justice Hosking was Occupied yesterday in hearing argument on the interpretation of a will. The late John Evans, of Waipukurau. a farmer, left in his will £500 to "Kliza Brooks, of Llandudno, daughter of my sister Eliza. ",» But he had no niece named Eliza Brooks. He had one named Adelaide Brooks, who lived in Llanduno, and who was not the daughter of his sister Eliza ; and he ihad another, Elizabeth . Jones, who \yas Eliza's daughter, but who did not live in Llandudno, but at Deganwy. Con- j sequently each niece, possessing part of j the right, name and part of ' the right description, sent in from Wales a claim to the £500, and tho Supreme Court was called upon to hear tho Argument." The claim of Elizabeth Jones, who is now dead, was made by her executor, and was put forward upon a foundation of many affidavits, submitted by Mr. J. G. H. Murdoch, of Napier. Mr. T. Neavo represented Adelaide Brooks, and Mr. 1). S Smith appeared for the executor of the late Mr. Evans, Mr. J. L. C. Merton, of Waipukurau. Mr. Murdoch based his claim on the fact, set .out in the affidavits, that Eliza Jones hati lived with her mother at a place called ''The Bricks," and had, in accordance with a Welsh custom, com* monly been called "Eliza Bricks." Furthermore it was claimed that when the testator made his will he was ill and feeble, and, haying left out his false teeth, spoke indistinctly and was understood to say "Brooks when Jie meant to say "Bricks." Against this, Mr. Neave arrayed the facts that Eliza Jones did not live at Llandudno, and for that matter was not at "The Bricks'' on one of the visits of the testator to Wales, and that Adelaide Brooks was the niece with whom he had spent most time. The argument was long and involved the quotation of many curious illustrative t cases. His Honour confessed to only 'the feeblest acquaintance with the Welsh language, winch fortunately did not figure in the- case beyond the naming of place's and people. Decision was reserved.