STRANGE WILL CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 11661, 16 December 1902, Page 3

STRANGE WILL CASE.

Remarkable developments, says a New York correspondent, inarked the opening at Long Branch, New Jersey, of the will suit in which Miss Laura; Biggar, an actress, figures as claimant to the estate of the late Mr Henry M. Bennett, a millionaire, on the ground that she was his wife and the mother of his posthumous child. As soon as the case was called counsel for Miw« Biggar announced that his client wished to withdraw her 'suit, whereupon counsel for the heirs of Mr Bennett arose and said that warrants had been issued for the arrest of Miss Biggar, of Mr Samuel Stanton, formerly a justice of the peace in Hoboken, who had stated that he had married Miss Biggar and Mr Bennett, and of Dr C. C. Hendrick, one of Miss Biggar’s lawyers, who is also her physician. -The two last named were arrested in court. They are accused of conspiring with Miss Biggar to defraud the estaceof Mr Bennett by making it appear that Miss Biggar was his widow and the mother of the posthumous child. It is asserted that the marriage_ never took place, and that a child which subsequently died was presented as the result of the alleged union. After a career on the stage which included the lole of Iza in 4 The Clemenceau Case ’ and the widow in 4 A Trip to Chinatown.’ Miss Biggar, who at that time was the wife of Mr Bart Haverley, a well-known minstrel, five years ago left her husband and became companion to Mr Bennett, who was then an old man. She resided with him as his nurse till his death, when under his will he was found to have left her about sixty per cent, of his estate, amonnting to 1,250,000 dollars. Mr Haverley in the meantime had obtained a divorce.' The heirs of Mr Bennett started proceedings to upset the will, alleging that Miss Biggar had exercised undue influence over tbs testator. To this Miss .Biggar responded by the announcement that she had been legally married to Mr Bennett, and that a posthumous child had been bom, and had died fifteen days alter birth. Mr Bennett’s extensive property was held almost exclusively in the States of New Jersey, New York, and PennsylvaniaUnder the law of all these States a posthumous and only child of whom no mention is made and for whose sustenance there is no provision in the father’s will is entitled to two-thirds of the father’s estate. The child having lived fifteen days and then died, Laura Biggar, its mother, would dearly inherit its full share as next-of-kin, and at her death the fortune would ■revert to her fifteen-year-old son, Willis, born of her former union, who is now living with his mother. Furthermore, Laura Biggar’s lawyers assured her that the remaining one-third portion of the entire estate she could probably obtain by suing for her dower-right, provided the Court should sustain the validity of her marriage to Mr Bennett. Sucn a disheartening prospect put all the other heirs instantly upon the alert. Counsel was retained, detectives were employed to investigate the alleged marriage and all the persons concerned in it. Efforts were made to probe into the secrets of the quiet sanatorium at Bayonne, where Miss Biggar has fonnd an asylum since the death of her venerable protebtor. It was pointed out as significant that the aged millionaire never had referred to Laura Biggar as his wife, and had designated her in his will solely by her name. It seems that she had been for five years the companion of his declining years—he was seventy-one when he died —and had nursed him faithfully through his last illness, but that she had never until after his death asserted her claim to a more sacred relationship. The detectives made inquiry in. many directions, and more than one New Jersey justice and mayor was approached to learn whether overtures had been made to them to enlist in a conspiracy to prove a bogus marriage. The sensational, developments which occurred iu the Long

Branch Court are the outcome. Contest! for Mr Bennettfs relatives exonerated the' chief lawyer ontho opposing sidefromaoy port is the allied conspiracy.