LUCKY CREDITORS

Evening Star, Issue 17191, 5 November 1919, Page 8

LUCKY CREDITORS

Considerable interest has been caused bv the announcement that it is believed that no will was left by Mrs Eliot (bettei known as Mrs Atherton). By law a husband is the sole heir of a wife who dies intestate, and Mrs Eliot, who leaves two children, of her first marriage, is stated to have had a, considerable fortune, apart from a life interest in money settled upon her. a P^ a * n ®i°t is understood to have no desire to benefit by his life’s death, and to have expressed the wish that the money should go to her children. Owing to the fact, however, that he is an undiacharged bankrupt, he has no power to forgo his inheritance, and his creditors, therefore, have first claim on the money. It is necessary that they should be satisfied in full before he or his lato wife's children may benefit. Although careful search has been made at the Curzon street flat, so far there has been found no will executed after Mrs Atherton’s marriage with Captain*. Eliot last April. Mr John Withers, solicitor, of Arundel street, Strand, who told the coroner that he had acted for Mrs Atherton on various occasions in the last 9 or 10 years, holds no will made by her since her recent marriage, and (as marriage invalidates any will made previously) unless a will should found in some unexpected quarter Mrs Eliot will, in the eyes of the law, have died intestate. Mrs Eliot made a will some years ago, leaving her personal property to her son and daughter, but, as has been stated, her second marriage automatically revoked this, and if, as it appears, she died intestate, the whole of her personal estate will pass to her husband. Captain Eliot. The value of Mrs Atherton’s estate has not yet been ascertained, but part of her income of between £3,000 and £4,000 —an estimate given by’ Mr Withers—is _ derived from certain life settlement interests which pass under settlement. Apart from this, however Mrs Atherton had money in her own right, of which she was free to dispose as she wished, and there is also, of course, an exceedingly valuable collection of furniture and jewellery, including the beautiful three-row pearl necklace which was round her neck when she shot herself.