DAUGHTER'S APPEAL

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21746, 31 March 1936, Page 7

DAUGHTER'S APPEAL

♦ FAMILY PROTECTION ACT HALSWELL FARMER’S ESTATE (PBKSS iSSOCUTIOH TILWBAM.) WELLINGTON, March 30. KatWeen McMaster of Timaru a married woman, applied to the Court of Appeal as a pauper for provision under the Family Protection Act, 1908, out of the estate of her father, George Gordon Holmes, Halswell, farmer An application to the Supreme Court, made before Mr Justice Northcroft, was dismissed by him on October 10, 1935. The testator’s estate, which for death duties purposes was valued at £59 617, is at present not providing a sufficient income to meet but it is not anticipated that it win not survive its difficulties, Tbe applicant is 38 years of age and has four children, whose ages range from four to 14. She is in distressedcircumstances, and has been smce the death of her father in January. 1935. Various properties acquired by the appeilant and her husband between 1923 and the time of the testator’s death have been lost. The testator had afforded the applicant considerable assistance during his lifetime, and it was acknowledged that he had behaved with the utmost generosity to this daugbter* i The general scheme of the father s will, after providing legacies totalline £I2OO, was to furnish an annuity of £IOOO for his widow (his second wife), together with a life estate for her in the testator’s home, and an annuity of £250 for another married daughter, and to divide the residue among the testator’s grandchildren. Mr Justice Northcroft. having regard to the testator’s duty to his widow and to the financial history o the appellant and her husband, and having regard further to financial embarrassment which had come uP°d the estate before the testator s death, was not prepared |to adopt the view that the testator had failed in his i moral duty toward the appellant.