A STRANGE WILL CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 57, 4 September 1909, Page 10

A STRANGE WILL CASE.

The strange Irish estate action, brought Iby direction of the ' Lord Chancellor, which occupied the Master of .the Rolls' I Court in Dublin for ten days, concluded on 2nd July, the judge setting aside the deed by which Mr. Edwafd St. John Brenon became possessed of all the life estate of Mr. John Boyce, now a senile imbecile in a Dublin institution. This deed" (says the Daily Mail) was made thirty-four], years ago, in February, 1875, when Boyce had not reached the age of forty. A singular fact was that the document which the court was asked to cancel as fraudulent could not be produced. Two engrossments of the deed, several drafts of it, instructions to coun- | sel about it, and every other document ! which might throw light upon its origin [ could not be discovered. The case, however, was so laid that ! the burden of proof was cast on Mr. Brenon, whose counsel during the hear- | ing wjshed to mend this situation by attempting to raise the formal issue that the deed did convey Boyce's liTe estate, but the judge rejected the proffered counterclaim. The Boyce family became wealthy as millers in Cork, and the father ..was a philanthropist. The property that came to Mr. John Boyce consisted of over 1000 acres of land in the counties of Cork and Waterford, which brought him an income of between £400 and £500. His connection with Mr. St. John Brenon originated through the latter's father, Mr. William Brenon, a man of attainments, becoming his tutor. Boyce, being physically weak and mentally deficient, j learned nothing, and in his early manhood • drifted to London, where, Mr. Brenon told the court, he found him leading a wild life. That was about 1865. Mr.'. Brenon, who was highly accomplished in literature and art, was then on his way to Rome for further studies in music, and Mr. Boyce accompanied him to Italy. There Boyce settled, Naples being the locality chosen ; and he remained in Naples until last year, when, through the intervention of the British Consul and his brother in Ireland, Capt. Tom Boyce, he was found — imbecile and emaciated, in the lowest depth of destitution, occupying one room in a lodginghouse. The allegation against Mr. Brenon was that, hiving obtained through-'the deed of 1875 all Boyce's landed estate and £10,450 in Consols, he doled out mere pittances, amounting to £60 per annum, to Mr. Boyce, and ultimately left him in penury. Mr. Brenon, who lately has resided at Airedale-avenue, Chiswick, presented the case that Boyce was thoroughly sane in 1875, and till recent years; that the assignments were made t6 him voluntarily, Boyce having great admiration for him and utter dislike of his relatives; and that the neglect was only recent, when grave illness prostrated himself. The Master of the Rolls set aside the deed on the three following grounds :—: — (1) That John Boyce was not at the date of the execution of the deed of sound mind, memory, or understanding. (2) On the ground of active, undue influence. The deed was suggested and carried, out under the influence of Mr. Brenon, actvively asserted. (3) He held that the Confidential relations that existed between Mr. Brenon and Mr. Boyce were sufficient to throw the onus upon Mr. Brenon to prove that the gift made to him of those lands was the gift of a man given freely and voluntarily and with competent advice. The defendant did not satisfy that onus. His lordship remarked that, so far as his knowledge and his experience as s lawyer went, the position he was placed Jn was unique. He had not been enabled to find a record of any other case in which a judge' was invited or required to set aside a deed no. copy of which appeared to be in existence, and the original of which undoubtedly had been lost. "The deed," said his lordship, "was conceived by fraud, i£ was carried out by fraud, it was bolstered up for a series of years by impudent fraud." He found it difficult to read some of Boyce's letters without breaking down. They revealed a story of woeful misery. It was plain from his letters that Boyce shrank with his greatest pain from letting any person know his secret, that secret being his inability to spell. It tore at his vitals as the fox tore at the Spartan boy's vitals. There was not a particle of proof of any man or woman helping him to communicate with the outside world except Brenon himself. Was there ever such a case ! This illiterate man could not communicate with the mother who loved him, with the sister who was affectionately disposed towards him, with his brother now dead. With a solitary exception, no letter to a relative or any one was allowed to go out except when it " filtered "" — to use the expression of Mr. Healey— through the medium, of Mr. Brenon. When the case was opened, it seemed as if Brenon was not only a hard taskmaster, but a cruel and cold-blooded monster. That view had broken down. He did not think Brenon meant that Boyce "should perish miserably in a top room in Naples. But the plain fact remained that all he allowed this unfortunate man for subsistence was £5 a month.