A DISPUTED WILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 65, 17 March 1915, Page 7

A DISPUTED WILL.

. HELD TO BE VALID. | (By Telegraph—Press Association.) / ' WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The hearing of a Taranaki will case ■was concluded in the Supreme Court today by Mr. Justice Chapman. The disputed will was that of the late Thomas Francis Walsh, a Hurleyville farmer, the value of the property left being estimated*at about jJS.imiO. The plaintiffs were the uncles on lh<- paternal side, and the defendant.- the nicies, aunts, and grandmother on the in i;ernal side of the deceased. Several of them arc residents of County Kerry. Ireland. The will in question was made just prior to the departure of deceased from his farm by a motor-car to the .Vfir Plymouth Hospital. He died on the way. The document was in the following terms: —".Norfolk Road. February 25, 11)13.—Thomas Francis Walsh's statement: In case anything should happen mc on my war to the hospital. 1 leave all my estates and stock to my uncles and aunts, except my interest in the Jforfolk Road farm, which goes to ray partner. Ernest William Gihhs. and £.»0 is to go tn Mrs. Allen ior her trouble during my illness. -Thomas Francis Walsh (mark). Witnessed by Krnest William (Jibhs. T. .1. Allen. Mrs. T. J. Allen." The plaintiffs claim that the Court should pronounce for the will as constituting the true and last will of the deceased. For the defence it was urged that the Court should rule that the deceased died intestate. The evidence of two of the signatories to the will. Ernest William fiibbs and .Marion Allen, was taken, also of two handwriting experts to show that the two last signatures to the will were in different hands. The contention of the defence was that they were by one and the same hands. The deceased was unable to sign through physical weakness. In the case of the will being invalid the property would go to the deceased's next-of-kin. his grandmother, in Ireland. The jury found that the document had been satisfactorily proved to have been executed by the testator as bis last will, and the judge ordered probate to be granted, cost? of both sides to come out of the estate.