Will’s Fate Hangs On Time Of Death

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31319, 15 March 1967, Page 4

Will’s Fate Hangs On Time Of Death

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, March 14. The final chapter of the life and legacy of German-born John Seaford spanned the length of the British Isles, but was crowded into 190 minutes, a London High Court judge heard yesterday.

Counsel for his widow, Mrs Jean Seaford, said that it was agreed that on July 6, 1965, at 8.30 a.m. Mrs Seaford’s application for her divorce decree to take immediate effect was received in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. 10 a m. the Registrar filed the application. 11.40 a.m. Mr Seaford, aged 38, was found dead near Thurso, 530 miles away, on the northern tip of Scotland. He left no will. Counsel said the fate of his £5OOO estate turned on the hour of his death. “If it took place before 8.30 a.m. Mrs Seaford succeeds, if

between 8.30 and 10 a.m. she might, if after 10 a.m. she must lose,” counsel told the Judge, Mr Justice Cairns. If Mrs Seaford loses, the estate passes to Mr Seaford’s widowed mother, Mrs Alwine Seifert, now living in America. Mr Seaford came to England in 1936 and was naturalised 11 years later. A police surgeon who saw the body at noon said Mr Seaford must then have been dead at least eight hours. The hearing continues.