A COURT JUDGMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 12

A COURT JUDGMENT

ON CAT'S NINE LIVES

It is exactly a hundred years, says the "Manchester Guardian," since th« High Court gave a decision of importance to cats, involving, indeed, a determination from the highest authority against the theory that cats have nine lives. It arose in this way. A testa* trix who had bsen deeply attached to her cat provided for it after deatti by leaving an annuity of £10 secured on a sum of stock in order that it might have proper care so long as it lived. It was named Blucher. A case was brought in the Vice-Chancellors Court which provided much merriment at the time. The cat, it was alleged, had died and the residuary legatee wished for the sanction of the Court for setting free the stock which had been earmarked for the purpose of the annuity. An independent witness who had known the cat in life was prepared to swear that it really was dead. But Bcthell (afterwards Lord Chancellor Wcstbury) pointed out that the usual practice was to produce a certificate of interment, which it was impossible to show in this case. The Registrar pointed out that a mere statement that a cat had died was not sufficient, evidence. Everyone knew that a cat had nine lives; how could one be sure (without a burial certiorate) tint the ca,* had not stf;l eight fewer lives a) its disposal: this might lttve been its first death.. The Vice-Chancellor said that he felt the weight of the objection but held that the cat. having once died, was to be considered for ever "civilitcr mortuus" (as decently dead as any other citizen) and not entitled to privileges greater than those , of a Christian.