A STRANGE WILL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 141, 29 May 1928, Page 7

A STRANGE WILL

DIVISION A CENTURY HENCE.

Giving evidence in a will case before the Chancery Court in the Old Country, the Portcullis Pursuivant of Arms stated that in 1920 there were 120 lineal descendants of Queen Victoria living, and that they were to be sought in Germany, Russia, Sweden, Dsnmark, Norway, Spain, Greece, Jugo-Slavia, and Rumania. The testator had postponed the distribution of his estate until the expiration of 20 years from death of the last survivor of Queen Victoria’s descendants who should be living at his death, and the will had been attacked on the ground that this provision was invalid on account of uncertainty and the impracticability of carrying it into effect. The witness mentioned testified that it Would be a matter of enormous expense to prove strictly all the births, maTriages, and deaths involved, and that it would be extremely difficult, and probably impossible, in the future to prove who was the last survivor of such descendants living on September 6th, 1926., the date of the testator’s death. He instanced the great difficulty of ascertaining the real fate of the family of the late Tsarina of Russia, who was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. A large number of the descendants w'ere members of German Royal families, who since tlie revolution in 1918 had become private persons and whose existence in the future would be difficult to establish. It was possible, he said, that the period of 20 years from the death of tlie last survivor might extend to 100 years from the death of the testator. Despite this evidence, Mr. Justice Astbury held that the provision was good in law ami that, as it seemed there would be no absolutely insuperable difficulty iu the wav of ascertaining the date for division of the corpus of the estate, the nill nnlsl stand.