PRIVY COUNCIL

Evening Star, Issue 22471, 16 October 1936, Page 10

PRIVY COUNCIL

NEW ZEALAND APPEAL DISMISSED Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, October 15. (Received October 16, at 1.30 p.m.) The Privy Council dismissed the appeal of the Attorney-general versus the New Zealand Insurance Company; also that of Vincent versus the Tailranga Electric Power Board. The first of these cases concerned a decision of the Court of Appeal in New Zealand, given by Sir Michael Myers, Mr Justice Smith, and Mr Justice Johnston, and dissented from by Sir John Reed, that the inclusion of the word “ benevolent ” in the clause of a will making a public bequest of a sum estimated to be now approximately £90,000, resulted in the trust or gift being void through vagueness and uncertainty, this principle having been established by decisions in England. Sir Alexander Herdman had previously held in the Supreme Court that the will was sound. The money was left by Mrs Catherine Smith, Auckland, whose husband, Captain James Smith, made a fortune out of shipping and mining activities. The widow died in 1933, leaving £126,595, of which • the residue, estimated then at £76,000, was to he devoted to benevolent, educational, or religious societies, institutions, or objects at Auckland. The New Zealand Insurance Company, Ltd., is the trustee under the will. The Court of Appeal held that the phrase “ institutions, societies, mid objects established for benevolent purposes ” was too indefinite for the meaning to be clear, and that the residue should go on as in intestacy.