QUESTION OF A TRUST FUND

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 141, 17 June 1919, Page 4

QUESTION OF A TRUST FUND

REFERRED. TO SUPREME COURT.

The Chief Juatice (Sir Robert Stout) yesterday heard the case in Cham-"1 bers of the Presbyterian Church Property . (Trustees v. William Henry Foster, Mr. G. G. Watson appeared for the plaintiff trustees.

The Court was asked to interpret the will of William Good, deceased, who died "on the Ist March, 1912, leaving a will dated 17th June, 1908, and a codicil dated Bth December, 191 L Probate' of the will was granted to the executor,' W. H. Foster. The sole survivor of Sarah Walker Good, James Kenneth . .Paton, and Mary Paton', mentioned in the will, was Sarah Walter Good. It was stated in the will that the testator was desirous of establishing a fund in connection with the Presbyterian Church, and that the income from certain funds should be applied in providing for regular church services in certain parts of the North Island, or^towards employing an evangelist in connection with the church.

The questions placed before the Court were —(a) Whether the fund to be raised by the plaintiff trustees must all ■be raised subsequent to the death and within five years (or the twelve months' extension of the five years provided, by the will) from the date of the death of the survivor of Sarah Walker Good, James Kenneth Paton, and Mary Paton, or1 whether such fund could, in conformity with the trust in favour of the plaintiff trustees contained in the will, be raised at any time during' the* lifetime'of such survivor, (b) Whether, if tlie plaintiff trustees proceed to raise the said fund during the life-time of the survivor of the above-mentioned beneficiaries, and succeed in raising such fund before the expiration of five years; the plaintiff trustees would be entitled, upon the death of such survivor, to receive the trust fund created by the will of the deceased and to apply the same, together with the- fund so-raised, to the purpose mentioned in the will. Decision was reserved.