AN ODD WILL SUIT.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 72, 22 September 1898, Page 5

AN ODD WILL SUIT.

[by telegraph — press association.] Timaru, This Day. At the Supreme Court to-day the plaintiff'? case was concluded in a suit in the probate jurisdiction in which the executors propound a draft of the will of the late Mr. Strongwork Morrison, who died in March, 1897. The will was made in 1893 by Mr. Perry, solicitor, who kept a copy and also kept the will until August, 1894, when the testator sent for it and thereafter kept it in a safe in the house. The testator was a confirmed invalid, and his wife and two stepdaughters had access to the safe. The plaintiff's case was directed to show the improbability of the testator having himself destroyed the will or instructed it to be destroyed, as it made provision for all relatives ot whom he always spoke in terms of kindness and regard. The widow had a settlement of a life interest in £1200, with the remainder to her two daughters, and the son was also mentioned in the will. A number of witnesses were called to prove that testator's feeling towards his relatives did not vary before his death. When the will was searched for after the funeral, it could not be found; Mr. Bell (Wellington), for the plaintiff, in opening, said he did not propose to suggest that any particular person stole the will. It would be sufficient to prove the improbability that the testator himself destroyed it, leaving the question of crime untouched. The real value of the estate is stated to be about £11,000. Sir Robert Stout, for the defendant (the widow), opened the defence to-day.