LOAN OR GIFT?

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 260, 3 November 1931, Page 9

LOAN OR GIFT?

WIDOW'S CLAIM FOR £229

SUPREME COURT ACTION,

An action to recover £229, claimed to have been lent by a woman to her husband, since deceased, was begun before Mr. Justice Smith at the Supreme Court this morning; Plaintiff was Cecilia Margaret .Miller, and the defendant Richard Froude Ward, manager of the Guardian Trust, executors in the estate of Joseph Miller, deceased.

Counsel for plaintiff said that Mrs. Miller married Joseph Miller on March 18, 1926. At that time Miller had a farm at Drury of about 50 acres, and she and her husband worked it. On January 5 of this year the husband died without making a will, and on August 5 letters of administration were granted to Richard Froude Ward, of the Guardian Trust. Mrs. Miller claimed that she had lent to her husband sums of money in cash totalling £229, and that the money was to be paid back to her when 'tlie farm was sold. Her money had been used to buy stock and manures for the farm.

The defence denied that the moneys had been paid by plaintiff to her husband, and asserted that, if they were, they were gifts.

Plaintiff, in. evidence, said the other beneficiary in the estate was a stepdaughter. She had never seen the stepdaughter, who was now 23 years of age and had been in England since she was one year and ten months old.

In cross-examination, plaintiff denied that the money was a gift. All she had on the farm was her food, and she worked as liard as a man. Had she refused to lend the money she would not have had peace and quiet in the home.

The defendant said the farm'had been sold and there would be approximatelv £600 derived from the sale. Two-thirds of the estate would go to the daughter and one-third to the plaintiff. Witness took up a strictly neutral attitude regarding the claim.

(Proceeding.)