HUSBAND’S CLAIM

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 180, 28 April 1931, Page 6

HUSBAND’S CLAIM

Deceased Wife’s Will SAVINGS BANK ACCOUNT A claim to a sum of over £l6OO in the Post Office Savings Bank in the name of his deceased wife, and to the furniture in the house in- which they lived, was heard in the Supreme Court yesterday before Mr. Justice Reed. ' Plaintiff was Martin Attridge Scott, marine engineer . (Mr. James), and the defendant the Public Trustee as executor of-the. will of--the deceased wife of the plaintiff (Mr. Macassey and Mr. Evan-Scott). Plaintiff’s case was that he paid the greater part of his monthly wages of £4O to * his wife, the balance 1 after payment of housekeeping expenses to be placed in the Post Office Savings Bank to provide for their old age. If one of them died the whole of the remainder was to go to the survivor. At the time of his wife’s death the money was in the Post Office Savings Bank in Wellington, the total amount on April !, 1930, being £lO9B/6/8. On claiming this money from the Public Trustee he was told that he would have to. take. legal proceedings to enforce the claim. As a second cause of action plaintiff claimed the proceeds of the sale of furniture from the house in Yule Street, Lyall Bay, which he and his wife were occupying at the time of her death. He further claimed to recover £lOO alleged to .have been given by his wife, without his consent, to a daughter by a previous marriage, and £9B/6/6, the proceeds of the sale of furniture from another house and which was paid the Savings Bank 'account. The defence denied the arrangement alleged by the plaintiff, contending that the furniture in both. houses was paid for out of Mrs. Scott’s savings. The money: given to her daughter was not taken from any money saved by the plaintiff. At the time of Mrs. Scott’s death in July, 1930, there was in the Savings Bank £llOB/3/10. ' The hearing was adjourned until this morning. . '