SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23003, 24 April 1940, Page 14

SUPREME COURT

ORDER FROM ESTATE GRANTED A grant of £SOO from the estate of her father was approved by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court yesterday in favour of Grace Isobel Bray Smith (Mr K. M. Gresson). The estate was that of George Saunders, of Christchurch, a . retired farmer. Mr B. ; A. Barrer appeared for the executors, ■ the- Perpetual Trustees Estate and Agency Company, Ltd., and K. G. Archer; Mr E. A. Lee lor the widow, Miriam Rose Saunders, and the three infant children of the testator, Joyce.Miriam Saunders, Ronald George Saunders, and George Lester Saunders; and Mr G. P. Purnell for the _ Lin wood Baptist Church and the Baptist Union of New Zealand, which; benefited under the wid. , The plaintiff was left nothing out of an" estate of approximately £9OOO, said Mr Gresson. - Counsel had conferred, and were agreed on what should be done for her, but, as three beneficiaries were infants, the proposed order . needed , the Court’s approval. The-plaintiff was an adopted daughter of the testator and his first wife, and, when her father remarried, there were between her and her stepmother, resulting in her leaving home ,at the:age of, 19. She was now 24. and had three young children, while her. husband earned only£4 11s 7d. She was, therefore, in necessitous circumstances. The widow received £250 a year;’: and -with the exception of two small -legacies to the Baptist Church, the estate reverted to the infant children r of the second-marriage, the plaintiff being .completely excluded. Counsel had agreed that the plaintiff should --receive £SOO. and'Mr Gresson submitted, an order to that effect. Mr Barrer said that cash was available to meet immediately such an order.: , : The widow approved of such an. order, said Mr Lee. The-order was also agreed to by the Baptist-Church, said Mr Purnell. In making an order, in terms of the. draft, submitted by Mr Gresson, his Horlbuf said that its terms were not so generous as to make the Court fear that the infant beneficiaries would suffer." The Court ordered costs, fixed at £2l for the plaintiff; £lO 10s for the widow and children, £5 5s for. the Baptist Church; and £lO 10s for the trustees, to be. paid out of the estate..