VALUE OF SHARES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 6

VALUE OF SHARES

COURT'S DECLARATION An application to obtain a declaratory judgment to determine the value of shares left to four beneficiaries in the estate of the late Agnes Graham Jenkins, was made before Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court to-day. Mrs. Jenkins died on December 23, 1942, and the application before the Court was made by Claude James Lovegrove (Mr. G. H. Turner), executor of the estate. The facts were not in dispute. By a will dated June 10, 1938, Mrs. Jenkins left two shares in the Gane Milking Machine Company to each of her three children, and" to a fourth child one share. At that time the shares had a nominal value of £500 each, but after the will had been made and before her death, the share capital of the company was rearranged and each £500 share was divided into 500 £1 shares. The question the Court was asked to determine was whether the beneficiaries of two shares were entitled to two £1 shares or £1000 £1 shares. His Honor said no sensible person could have any doubt about what the mother intended to do. It was too absurd for words to think that she intended to do otherwise than leave shares to the value of £1000 to each of three children and of £500 to another. At the same time the burden was upon the Court, which had to be satisfied as to the law. His Honor held that the shares were of the nominal value of £500 each. He allowed £21 costs to the plaintiff.