DRUIDIC BENEFITS

Evening Star, Issue 23324, 21 July 1939, Page 16

DRUIDIC BENEFITS

HOT PART OF DECEASED ESTATE ■fl’Bß United Press Association.J . WEI.MNGTON, July 20. By a reserved judgment delivered in the Supreme Court to-day, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) held that money payable by the United Ancient Order of Druids as funeral and death benefits does not constitute part of a deceased estate. The society, as there had been no nomination of a beneficiary under the rules by Edwin Hugh' Gough, paid the money—r£2o out of the funeral fund and £IOO out of the death benefit fund —to the widow, Isabella Gough. The proceedings were brought by Mathew Gray Naismith Gough and Edwin Hugh Gough, suing for the children of the deceased by his first marriage. The defendant was his third wife, but there had been no children by either the second or third marriage His Honour, after discussing the rules of the society, said he thought the board was entitled to pay the money to the defendant in the capacity of a member’s widow, and that the money did not form part of the deceased estate.