APPLICATION FAILS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23719, 18 August 1942, Page 6

APPLICATION FAILS

SHARE IN ESTATE SOUGHT Judgment for defendant was given in the Supreme Court yesterday by Mr Justice Northcroft in a reserved decision on an application under the Family Protection Act in which Annie Teresa Offwood' wife of Leslie Offwood, of Christchurch grocer, proceeded against the Public Trustee as executor and Mary Catherine Heed spinster, of Christchurch, sole beneficiary under the will ol Catherine Curtin, formerly of Christchurch. The plaintiff, a daughter of the testatrix, asked that provision be made for her out of the estate Another daughter, Margaret Molloy of Christchurch, widow, also asked for provision out of the estate. Both were stated to be in poor health and in difficult financial circumstances.

"In this case, having regard to the family history. I am not prepared to say this testatrix has failed in her duty to her daughters,” said his Honour. “They elected to treat her as if they were strangers, and I do not think they are entitled now to rely on the act to enforce their fortuitous rights as daughters. Upon the merits, then,, I think, the applicants should fail," he said.

Commenting on an application for an extension of time in which application for relief might be made, his Honour said that the applicants failed to intervene when 14 days beyond the statutory 12 months had been allowed them, and they thus, in effect, abandoned their claims. The application was therefore refused.