PROBATE RECALLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1937, Page 11

PROBATE RECALLED.

WOMAN'S FIRST WILL. NEPHEWS' CLAIM SUCCEEDS. 'KNEW "WHAT SHE WAS DOING' After hearing medical evidence detailing eccentricities on the part of Mrs. Mary Kemp during the later years of her life, and legal addresses, Mr. Justice Ostler, in the Supreme Court to-day, recalled probate of the first of two wills made by Mrs. Kemp, and pronounced in favour of the validity of a second will made bv her.

The hearing of the action occupied three days and portion of to-day. It was a claim brought by James Alexandra Smith and William Benson Smith, farmers, and nephews of the testatrix, to have recalled the granting of probate in common form of the first of two will* made by Mrs. Kemp in which she left the whole of her estate to her husband. William John Kemp, horse trainer, of Onehunga. The nephews asked that probate in solemn form of a second will made by Mrs. Kemp, in which ehe left the estate to be divided between her nephews, be granted. The will in favour of her husband was made in April, 1913, and that in favour of the plaintiffs in October, 1934. In giving judgment this morning, the judge reviewed the evidence at considerable length. He found that when the testatrix made her will in October, 1934, she was of testamentary canacity. The evidence which had been adduced to show that Mrs. Kemp had suffered from delusions did not eatiefy him that euch delusions existed. The body of evidence was in favour of the conclusion to be arrived at that the old lady was, at the time she made the will in favour of her nephews, well able fully to understand what she was doing. An order would be made recalling probate of the first will, and the second will would be pronounced valid, cost* to both parties to be paid out of the estate.

Mr. T. H#nry appeared for the plain tiffs and Mr. West for the defendant.