DISINHERITANCE

Evening Star, Issue 20720, 17 February 1931, Page 7

DISINHERITANCE

SAFEGUARDS FOR WIDOWERS AND WIDOWS

. Prominent lawyers arc now engaged in training a Bill which will have the efi’ect of making it impossible lor a man to disinherit Jus wife completely. The Bill will bo introduced into the House of Commons on February 20 by Miss Eleanor Hathbone, of Liverpool, Independent M.P. for the Combined English Universities. hliss Hathbone told a ‘Sunday Dispatch ’ reporter that the greatest care was being taken to ensure that the terms of the Bill should be free from objection. “it is an extraordinary thing,” she said, “ that England should bo one of the last countries to take steps to prevent a man leaving all his money away from his wife to an institution' or an individual, “ All the Latin countries, whoso judicial systems are lounded on Homan Jaw, nave provisions safeguarding the rights of wives, and, of course m Scotland the same thing applies. There at least one-third of the estate must go to the widow or widower, if there are children, and oue-haif if there are not. “Any children receive one-third between them. “iMy Bill, which women's societies and many lawyers are helping to frame, will, it is hoped, avoid certain defects in the Scottish Bill. ■“ln some of the dominions a widow may apply to the court if she is left destitute, but the Bill I am introducing will bo much more far-reaching than this. It will apply to both men and women, though it is more often women who are the victims of the present state of the law.”