UNUSUAL CASE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24741, 5 December 1945, Page 5

UNUSUAL CASE

GERMANYS MIGRANT POPULATION—A one-legged German who wants to cross the Russian-Amcrican border into Russianoccupied territory has his papers examined by an American guard Germans who left their homes for other districts during the war are now being returned.

♦ ASTERS SIGNED WRONG WILLS

ACTION IN. SUPREME COURT An unusual story of two sisters having accidentally signed each other’s wills was heard m the Supreme Court yesterday before Mr Justice Northcroft. when a motion for probate of the will of the second sister, by Mr R. J, Loughnan, for the Guardian Trust and Executors Company, Ltd., executor of both wills, was refused v£.-xf oughnan appeared also for Elizabeth Edith Inwood, one of the next-of-kin, who consented to probate. Mr A C Brassington appeared for Kathleen Alice Boyd the residuary legatee, and Mr J. D. Hutchison appeared for six other next-of-km, Ruth Humphries. Ada Quigley, Alexander Forbes Leslie, Mary Louise Carver, Ellen Inwood, and Frederick Charles Remington.

The two sisters. Maud Lucy Remington and Jane Remington, who were both now dead, had lived together all their lives and had, in 1930, decided to make similar wills, said Mr Loughnan. They had asked the Christchurch manager of the Guardian Trust and Executors Company to. draw up their wills. It was an increasingly common practice.

"But not a desirable one," said his Honour. “Professional work should be done by professional men.” The sisters’ instructions had been taken by the manager of the company, Mr Loughnan said, but the wills had been drawn up by the company’s' solicitor. The signing of the wills, the vitally important part, had not, however, been supervised by the solicitor. The sisters had called at the company’s office to sign the wills, and by an unfortunate accident each had signed the will of the other. On the death of Maud Lucy Remington in 1940. the Post Office Savings Bank sent her will to Wellington for scrutiny. Her estate had amounted to about £25 in the bank, and no probate had been necessary, In Wellington the will had been initialled, confirmed. approved, and generally blessed by everyone through whose hands it had passed, and no one .had noticed that it had been signed, by Jane Remington. The bank had paid the estate to the company, which had thus received Maud Lucy Remington’s estate by virtue of a will signed by the other sister. -Later, under a new rule, the will of the surviving sister had been sent'to the company’s head office' at Auckland.

His Honour: It is extraordinary that the mistake was not discovered then. The wills should surely have been checked on receipt. The mistake had not been discovered until the death of the second sister in September last year, Mr Loughnan continued. The company was much concerned, as the estate was of a considerable value, amounting to about £2500. Further. Maud Lucy Remington's will, signed by Jane Remington, which had been returned to the Christchurch manager of the company by the Post Office, could not now be found.

His Honour: That would not have happened if the business had been done, as it should have been done, by a solicitor. He would have filed it away. I cannot imagine such a thing occurring in anv properly run solicitor’s office. I cannot imagine any responsible person treating so important a document in such a perfunctory manner. There was nothing sinister about the form in which the case was brought before the- Court, Mr Loughnan' said.. His Honour said it was the practice of the Courts for matters of probate to be determined by action, and he had warned applicant’s solicitor that that was his opinion. Probate in common form was not final and conclusive, and if it.were granted there was nothing to prevent one of the next-of-kin starting an action to upset it, resulting in a redundancy of action such as the Court would always prevent if it could. He was concerned for the position of the residuary legatee, if the parties were dissatisfied with the Court's decision. If probate were granted in this form, he doubted whether appeal to the Court of Appeal would be open to her, and she would have to start an action. His Honour reserved his decision bn costs, and ordered that the will be propounded by action in solemn form.