ESTATE DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 77, 1 April 1931, Page 15

ESTATE DUTY

ASSESSMENT QUERIED

APPEAL BY WIDOW

Complicated facts were presented in a case which, came boforo the Court of Appeal yesterday in which ■ Linda Beatrice Rhodes-Moorhouse, of ■ London, widow, as administratrix of the estate of the late .WilJiam Barnard Rhodes Rhodes-Moorhouse, appealed against an assessment of estate duty niado by the Commissioner of Stamp Duties. There.were on the Bench the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), Mr. Justice Reed, Mr. Justice Adams,.,and Mr. Justice Smith. Mr. A. Gray, K.C., with Mr. E. F. Hadneld, represented the appellant, and the Solicitor-General (Mr. A. Pair, K.C.) and Mr. Taylor (Crown Solicitor) appeared for the respondent. ' The case stated by the Commissioner of Stamp Duties for the opinion of the Court showed that under the will of the Hon. William Barnard Rhodes, who died at Wellington on 11th February, 1878, his estates —Highland Park (Wellington) and Heaton Park (Rangitikei) r—were devised to trustees upon trust after the death of Mary. Ann Rhodes, daughter of the- testatrix, for the first and every other son of his daughter in tail male. Miss Rhodes married Edward Moorhouse, and the eldest child of tlipir marriage was William Barnard Rhodes Rhodes-Moorhouse, who was killed in action in France on 27th April, 1915. He was survived by his wife (the appellant) and a two-year-old son.,' Mrs. Moorhouse, sen., mother of William Barnard Rhodes RhodesMoorhouse, and life tenant of ths residue of the estate of the testator undisposed of at the death of the testator's widow, died ,on 2nd April, 1930, so that William ■ Barnard Rhodes Rhodes-Moorhouse had never entered into possession of the estate tail, nor was he ever entitled to the. income of the estate. • In assessing the, estate duty in respect of the estate of William Barnard Rhodes Rhodes-Moorhouse, the Commissioner of Stamp Duties included the estate tail in the unsold portions of Highland Park, and in the proceeds of Heaton Park, and the portions of Highland .Park sold. His widow appeal- J ed to, the Supreme Court against this assessment, and the case was moved into the Court of.. Appeal for argu-?, ment. <■■ ■

'. Legal argument occupied the whole of yesterday, and was continued today. . "'