LEGITIMACY PUZZLE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 5

LEGITIMACY PUZZLE

Man’s Marriage To His Grand-niece Two women who had been debarred by a court decision from sharing an estate of nearly £19,000, are to have the money after all. The question of a man’s marriage to his Illegitimate grand-niece was involved. This change in the women’s fortune wag the effect of a judgment given recently in the First Division of the Court of Session, Edinburgh. The action was to determine who was entitled to the estate of Mr. Thomas Moncrieffi *

Philp, a chartered accountant, of Liberton Brae, Edinburgh. Mr. Philp left no will, and the court had to consider the rival claims of the next-of-kin and the Crown. The next-of-kin were Mrs. Euphemia Dick Beaton, of Viewforth Street. Kirkcaldy, and Mrs. Jean M. S. P. Knox, of Ashford Road, Maidstone, Kent.

The legal question turned on whether the marriage in 1896 of Mr. Philp's father, George Philp, to his illegitimate grand-niece, was lawful. In the lower court, Lord Jamieson bold that Thomas Philp must be regarded as having been illegitimate, and that the Crown was entitled- to the estate.

However, tlie higher court overruled that decision. It was held that Mrs. Beaton was entitled to the movable estate, amounting to more than £17,000, and that Mrs. Knox was entitled to the,heritable estate, valued, a£ £1950.