WOMEN’S DEATHS IN FIRE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27667, 25 May 1955, Page 7

WOMEN’S DEATHS IN FIRE

VALIDITY OF WILLS ARGUED CASE IN NEW PLYMOUTH SUPREME COURT (New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, May 24. Whether a mother or a daughter died first in a fire is being argued in a will case before the Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowclough) in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth. The hearing began today, and is expected to conclude tomorrow. Under the mother’s will all her estate passed to the daughter. The Stratford Hospital Board, which is defending the action, is named as a beneficiary under the daughter’s will. The plaintiffs are Thomas Huzziff and John Huzziff, for whom Mr J. W. Till appears. The defendants are the Public Trustee (Mr W. Middleton) and the Stratford Hospital Board (Mr W. E. Leicester and Mr J. R. Callaghan). The fire occurred at Toko on August 23, 1953, and the Court is asked by the plaintiffs to make a declaration that the presumed order of deaths in accordance with section 27 of the Property Law Act, 1952, —in order of seniority—is not applicable. Mr Till said that Sarah Ann Smith, a widow, aged 73, and her daughter, Jean Ellen Smith, single, aged 36, lived on a farm at Toko, which they worked. Under the mother’s will everything was left to the daughter, and tne Stratford Hospital Board was a beneficiary under the daughter’s will. His Honour: If the daughter died firs tthe mother was, in law, intestate. Mr Till agreed. His Honour: It is then purely a question of the circumstance of the fire? Mr Till agreed, and said that an estate of between £BOOO and £9OOO was involved. The evidence would show that the house caught fire before 5 a.m., and that the room occupied by the daughter was completely on fire before the flames reached the mother’s room. The onus was on the plaintiffs to convince the Court as to the order of death. Before evidence was called Mr Leicester said that the Stratford Hospital Board wished to put to proof the relationship of the plaintiffs to the dead women. Mr Callaghan had himself established that the Huzziffs were the only- surviving relatives of the mother, and this was accepted. Evidence was given by a repres ntative of the insurance company holding a cover on the house, neighbouring farmers, a former constable at Stratford, the Medical Superintendent of the Startford Public Hospital, and the superintendent of the New Plymouth Fire Brigade.