APPLICATION BY WIDOW

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29251, 8 July 1960, Page 10

APPLICATION BY WIDOW

Decision Reserved An application by Rona Hinemoa Thelning, aged 51, for further provision from the £3200 estate of her busband, Alfred Oscar I a sheet metal worker, who died in .1956, was heard before Mr Justice Macarthur in th Supreme Court yesterday. Mr A. D. Holland appeared for the plaintiff; Mr E. J. Somers for Anne Josephine Thelning, aged 14, and Paul Morris Thelning. aged 9, children of the plaintiff and test , who also sought further provision from the estate. Mr H. S. Thomas appeared for Enid Beatrice Thomson, aged 38. a married woman, of Ngaio, and Lemuel Alfred Thelning, aged 33, a farmer, .daughter and son of the testator by his first marriage; ■nd Mr J. R. Williams for Maurice Thelning. > coal merchant, trustee ot the estate. After hearing, submissions from counsel for al] parties, lus Honour reserved his decision. ; W Holland said that the testator on August 16, 1956. The I estate mainly comprised a house valued at £2600. The testator had been married twice, and had two children by his first marriage, a daughter now aged 38 arid a son now aged 33. Hie plaintiff began housekeeping for the testator in 1942 and he married her- in 1944. She had been a loyal wife to him and a good mother to their children. At' present she had assets of £lOOO. comprising mainly a car and furniture. The'plaintiff under 'the terms of the will had the right to occupy the house, subject to paying the outgoings during her lifetime or until her remarriage. She had life interest in the residue of the estate. After her death or remarriage, the estate was to be divided equally amongst the testator's four children. Counsel submitted that, having regard to the size and nature of the estate, the testator had no moral obligation towards the children of his first marriage when the age of the plaintiff widow and her children were I taken into account The widow 9ent money amounting to £lO6l 3s 9d on the testator and his property before] and after his death, said counsel. | “The testator should have left her a legacy of the cor and a cash legacy of £9OO if only to repay the money he owed her,** counsel said. I - >• ■: