A WIFE'S ANNUITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 181, 2 August 1929, Page 10

A WIFE'S ANNUITY.

COURT INCREASES AMOUNT. WIDOW'S CLAIM SUCCEEDS. "Having regard to all the circumstances of the case, including plaintiff's state of health, I consider that the testato has not fulfilled his moral obligation to his wife, is the opinion expressed by. Mr. Justice Blair in his judgment ordering Letitia Harriet Parker to be paid during her life £250 per annum out of the residuary of the estate of John Parker. The action was heard on March 25 and was an application under The Family Protection Act, 1908. Mr. Vallance appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. G. P. Finlay for the defendants, Emily Dorothy Bilton and Robert Norman Moody. His Honor, in his judgment, said the plaintiff"was a woman 05 years of age. Her husband died on August 8, 1928, leaving plaintiff and one child, Emily Dorothy Bilton, one of the defendants. In his will the deceased appointed the defendants as executors, and provided that the plaintiff should be paid £Lg every calandar month. The estate had not been wound up, but the net amount would bo £7000, perhaps more. In her affidavit the plaintiff stated that the reason she had lived apart from the deceased since December, 1914, was because of his persistent cruelty and illtreatment, and under the advice of doctors who attended him that his condition of epilepsy with attendant outbreaks of violent temper made it unsafe for her to live with him. Medical evidence partiallv supported the evidence of plaintiff. The defendants contended that plaintiff pursued a course calculated to provoke the utmost hostility in the deceased. It was also contended there was no mention of cruelty in any of the letters filed in evidence, and deceased was obviously convinced that plaintiff was unduly extravagant and hostile to him. "I consider that an order is justifiable in the circumstances," concludes Mr. Justice Blair in the judgment,, "and I order that plaintiff be paid durinpr her life the, further sum of £130 per annum, making a total of £250 annuity to her, pay ments to be made monthly."