NOBODY’S MONEY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 260, 3 August 1928, Page 18

NOBODY’S MONEY

What becomes of the money left by intestates? Letters of administration are taken out by the solicitor to the Treasury, who carries out the intestate’s intentions as far as they arc known whether they have any legal force or not (writes a lawyer in the “Cape Argus”). Often some of the estate is absorbed in this way and part of the balance may be distributed among people who have moral claims. About 15 years ago, for instance, nearly £20,000 left by an intestate was paid out as "intended legacies,” and of the rest of the estate about £lO,OOO was distributed among the illegitimate relatives. The residue of an estate, - where there is no next of kin, goes to the Crown—that is, to the State, not to the King personally. His Majesty is, however, entitled to the estates of intestates who die in the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Prince of Wales has a like right in regard to tho Duchy of Cornwall. Heywood, Lancashire, has a park which was presented to the town by Queen Victoria out of a Ipcal intestate’s estate which reverted to,Her Majesty as Duchess of Lancaster. Still, an intestate’s estate'may be recovered from tbe Crown by legitimate heirs. One claimant —a lady—established her right to her father’s estates after litigation extending over nearly 20 years. She also died without making a will, and, as she had no known next of kin,; her father's estate, with about £40,000 she had added to it, again reverted to the Crown, which, after holding it for about ten years, was obliged to give it up to a number of’ltalians from a village near Genoa. Several poor people living tn one of the Eastern counties were equally successful in a fight with tho Crown oyer au estate left by a relative who. coming up to London, assumed a fictitious name, and each recovered more than £10,009. Many large estates which have reverted to tbe Crown are, in fuel, still claimable, and, possibly, some of them may yet be recovered by persons who at present do not know of their rights. Jhe only generally accessible informalioyi eon-* corning such 'prizes is eonlnined in the official lists of intestates, which arc published nnnuiilly ami cun be obluincd from lI.M. Stationery Office, or through any bookseller.