TERMS OF A WILL

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 290, 3 September 1931, Page 8

TERMS OF A WILL

Sum of £53,247 Affected COURT ASKED TO DEFINE An order construing th* 'will and codicil of the late Charles Cathie, clothing manufacturer, was sought as an originating summons in the Supreme Court yesterday, before Mr. Justice Blair, by the Guardian Trust and Executors Company, Ltd. The defendants were the eleven children of the testator and other beneficiaries, including the Baptist Union of New Zealand and the Sudan United Mission. The names of the children are Charles Nicholas Cathie, William Edward Cathie, Andrew Gray Cathie, Arthur James Cathie, John Stuart Cathie, Ronald McGilvray Cathie, Catherine Gray Johnson, Jessie Elizabeth Cathie, Winifred Agnes Cathie,. Effie Milroy Hart, and Annie Doris Grigg. Mr. C. H. Treadwell appeared for the plaintiff company; Messrs. Cornish, Putnam and Hay for the children of the testator ; Mr. Spratt for the Bdptist Church; and Mr. Reid for the Sudan United Mission.

Tlie final balance of the estate upon which duty was paid was £53,247/12/-, and the questions the court was asked to decide were:—

1. Whether the sum of £lOO Is payable to each of tho daughters of the testator, notwithstanding or independently of the payments by the testatotr to each of nls daughters. 2. Whether tho gift of £3500 to each child la destructive of the legacy of £lOO to each daughter. 3. Whether the effect of the gift to each of the children is Irrespective cf any gifts or advances made by the testator In his lifetime, or whether the amount of such gifts or advances is to be deducted from the share of each child, amounting to £3500.. 4. Whether the fact set out in an affidavit with reference to the gifts and advances made by the testator to his children aro admissible as explanatory of the provisions In the will and codicil in favour of the children, or any of the children. 5. Whether the plaintiff is entitled or bound to accept entries in the ledger as diminishing the share, amounting to £3500, of any child In respect of whom such entries have been made, or Is the sum of £3500 payable in any event without regard t*> the entries In the ledger. 6. Whether the devise and bequests in favour of the widow and the bequests in favour of the children, or any of them, are free of estate and succession duties. The will was dated November 11, 1926, and the codicil October 1, 1929. By tho codicil, the testator left onerieventh share of his residuary estate to the Sudan United Mission, and threeeleventh shares to the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society for work in India. Several other bequests to charit able institutions were included in the codicil.

The hearing lasted all day, and, aftei hearing the submissions of counsel, his Honour reserved judgment.