CHINESE WILL CASE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 266, 23 August 1949, Page 4

CHINESE WILL CASE

Two Documents Produced ONE IN ENGLISH, ONE IN CHINESE (P.A). AUCKLAND, August 22. The right to an. estate, valued at about £IOOO, of a Chinese pensioner, Charlie Wong Chuck, who died in the Auckland Hospital on July 7, 1945, was disputed in the | Supreme Court before Mr Justice Finlay to-day. A nephew, Wong Ah Toy (Mr T.-Henry), asked the Court to declare valid a will written in Chinese and dated June 4. This will appointed tlie plaintiff as administrator of the estate. A driver until recently employed for 20 years by the Auckland City Mission, Mr Joseph Manning (Mr A. K. North, K.C., with him Mr M. A. Brook), asked the Court to declare valid a will writtene in English and signed by Charlie Wong Chuck on June 1, 1948. This will instructed the estate to he divided among the plaintiff and three other Europeans who had befriended the testator.

Wong Yook, a market gardener, said he had'known Charlie Wong Chuck for more than 20 years. Accompanied by another man, he had visited Charlie Wong Chuck in liis room and witnessed the will written in Chinese. Cross-examined by Mr North, the witness said be had' known Wong Ah Toy for about 20 years. The witness did not tell plaintiff what was in the will lie had witnessed until about two or three months after Charlie Wong Chuck’s death. The witness denied having written tlie will himself. Wong Ah Toy said he came to New Zealand in 1920 after his father had died in China. His father was a brother to Charlie Wong Chuck. His passage money and bond in New Zealand wel'e paid by his uncle. He had always been oil good terms with his Uncle.

Discovery of Chinese Will

G. B. Sinclair, solicitor, said lie received a will written in English on the afternoon of the day Charlie Wong Cliuck died. In company with the plaintiff and the solicitor for the defendant, lie later made a search of Charlie Wong Chuck’s room. When the plaintiff found an envelope on which was Chinese writing, the plaintiff said it was addressed to himself and openit. It contained a will written in Chinese. It was dated three days after the will written in English. For tlie defendant, Mr North said it was not necessary to prqve forgery of tlie will written in Chinese. Where there were suspicious circumstances 1 relating to a will, as in the case of the | will claimed by the plaintiff, as being g genuine, the onus was oil those pro- 1 pounding it to satisfy the Court that g it was tlie last will of tlie testator. | He claimed that the will written in | Chinese showed a degree of construe- g tion that could not be credited to a g man aged 74 and in ill-health. I In evidence, the defendant said he had known Charlie Wong Cliuck for five or six years. When Charlie Wong Chuck had suggested making a will the Avitness had told him he could go to the Public “Trustee. However, the i Avitness later, at the request of Charlie Wong Chuck, Avrote out a will Avliich gave the witness a share in it j and appointed him executor. After it Avas Avitnessed it- Avas locked in tlie safe of the Auckland City Mission. The hearing was adjourned.