QUEER TESTAMENT

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 139, 7 March 1936, Page 22

QUEER TESTAMENT

Will Problem for the Court The will of the late Mr. Joseph Garfinkel, of Capetown, which was the subject of litigation in the Supreme Court at Capetown recently, was described as a “more than eccentric” document by Mr. Justice Jones. The plaintiffs were Simon and Harry Garfinkel, Leah Shipra Leibowitz, Saul M. Marcus and Molly M. Marcus, and the defendant was George Alfred Tonbridge, in his capacity as executor testamentary of the estate. It was contended that the terms of the will were such that they were incapable of being carried out. Mr. Justice Jones described how Mr. Garfinkel died possessed of a shop and attached dwelling, and a sum of money in a bank at Cradock, and left a will appointing an executor and administrator “with the necessary provision for successors to him for all time,” and providing that the property should never be disposed of but “shall continue to be for ever registered in my name.”

It was provided that “a tender for the lease of the property should be called for by advertisement, and the successful tenderer should be required to give security in the sum of £5OO and provide three certificates that he is a true and honest person and of good character from a local high school teacher, a magistrate and a minister of religion.” The rent was not to be less than 60s. a month, and while the property was not occupied it was to be barricaded with wire netting, boards or roof iron. The lessees would be allowed to carry on the business of manufacturing Garfinkel’s improved aerated drinks and would be allowed to use the apparatus and prescriptions. Another clause laid it down that the lessee was to act as librarian of “J. Garfinkel’s occult library,” to the use of w’hich the dwelling-house was to be devoted and never used for any other purpose. This library consists of 10 books and pamphlets of a realisable value of 10s. Persons who wished to peruse these books must produce three certificates similar to those demanded of the lessee or librarian.

“The brothers and sisters of the deceased,” said Mr. Justice Jones, “contend that the estate should be administered by the executor as being intestate. and the executor does not contest this contention. It is agreed that the deceased believed there was no such thing as'death, but that each being ‘passed over’ to a world similar to this one and enjoyed assets similar and equivalent to his worldly assets, so long as the latter remained intact in this w’orld. The fact that it has been found impossible to obtain a lessee on the conditions named renders the will incapable of performance. “It being impossible to give effect to the wishes of the deceased in this more than eccentric will, it must be declared that he died intestate save as to the appointment of an executor. The costs of these proceedings will be paid out of the estate.”