WIDOW’S ALLOWANCE INCREASED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 264, 3 August 1929, Page 27

WIDOW’S ALLOWANCE INCREASED

APPLICADON CONTESTED RETIRED FARMER’S WILL Dominion Special Service. Auckland, August 1. A substantial increase in her allowance has been granted to a widow by Mr. Justice Blair in response to an application made in the Supreme Court under the Family Protection Act. 1908. 1 laintifE was Letitia Harriet Parker (Mr. Jnllance), widow of John Parker, a retired farmer, who died in Auckland last August leaving an estate valued at over £7OOO. The application for an increased allowance was opposed by Emily Dorothy Bilton, deceased’s only child, and Robert N- Moody (Mr. Finlay), the executors of the will. In his judgment His Honour said that under the will the trustees were to pay to plaintiff during her life £lO a month, the residue of the income to be paid to Emily Dorothy Bilton. The executors resisted the application on the ground of the wife’s conduct during her married life and because she made application to have deceased committed to an asylum. There was evidence that deceased had been subject to epileptic fits for a number of years and that his conduct became cruel toward his wife. His Honour said plaintiff was united by marriage to an epileptic who was subject at all times to indulgence in conduct which, to say the least, must have been nervewracking if not intolerable. The fact that she took steps to end this deplorable state of affairs could not in His Honour’s mind be visited upon her as conduct entitling the husband entirely to disregard his obligations to her; so much the more was this the case when she took this course under medical advice. Deceased’s estate should produce at least £4OO a year. Plaintiff was 65 years ot age and was unable to follow an occupation, and, in fact, required some provision for attendance upon her personal needs. His Honour ordered that plaintiff should be paid during her life out of the income of the residuary estate a further sum of £l3O a year, making a total of a £250 annuity.