HUSBAND'S SAVINGS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 63, 15 March 1945, Page 4

HUSBAND'S SAVINGS

O.C. WANGANUI, March 14. A claim by a widower against the Public Trustee to recover £ 150 from his deceased wife's estate succeeded in the Wanganui Magistrate's Court. Evidence showed that the money represented the husband's savings, and had been deposited, at-his suggestion, in his wife's account in the Post Office Savings Bank shortly before she died. In" a reserved judgment, Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., said he was satisfied that the plaintiff had completely discharged the onus of proof placed upon him. Evidence, Mr. Salmon said, showed that the husband and wife at one time both had savings bank accounts, but the husband subsequently closed his and the wife's was kept open. This account, the only one they had, was drawn upon during the depression years. The wife had had no income of her own, except a legacy of some £50 to £70 from her father's estate. The defendant, the Public Trustee, acting as trustee in the wife's estate, was not in a position to dispute the evidence but was bound to test the validity of the claim. The defences raised were purely questions of law. Mr J S. D. Tizard appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. W. R. Brown for the Public Trustee.