AUCKLAND WILL CASE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 153, 25 March 1925, Page 10

AUCKLAND WILL CASE

WHICH IS THIS LAST WILL? Tn the Court of Appeal yesterday Their Honours Mr. Justice Sim, Mr. Justice Reed, Mr. Justice Adams, and Ir. Justice Ostler heard legal argument in an appeal from a judgment of Mr Justice Herdman in an Auckland will case. Martha Ann Barker, of Hillsborough, Auckland, widow, who died in January, 1924, made wills in 1901, 1908, and 1919 respectively. In her last will she ordered her executors, Alice Ann Long and Andrew Hanna, to divide the estate equally among six of her nine children, three being excluded on the ground that they were ■ already sufficiently provided for. The will of 1908 ordered the division of the estate equally among three only of the nine children who were also beneficiaries under the will of 1919. The testatrix, who suffered from bronchitis and heart trouble died in January, 1924, at the age of 82 years, and probate of the will of 1919 was granted in February, 1924. William Thomas Barker, George Barker, and Thomas Barker, the sole beneficiaries named in the will of 1908, applied to the Supreme Court to have the will of 1919 cancelled on the grounds that the testatrix, at the time she made the will, was not of sound mind, memory and understanding, and that she was influenced. The claim was heard at Auckland, and Mr. Justice Herdman delivered judgment on l5, 1924, expressing the opinion that, “Mrs. Barker’s m-ntal faculties were not. when she made her last will, up to the standard required to enable her to make a valid disposition of her estate.” He therefore set aside the will of 1919, and in effect declared the will of 1908 to be the one, jn accordance with the provisions of which the estate should be administered. The appeal is from that judgment, snd further argument will be heard to-day. Mr. J. 11. Luxford, with him Mr. B. Beckerlcy, represented appellant executors, and Air. V. R. S. Meredith appeared for respondents.