£80,000 FOR CHARITY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 162, 25 June 1935, Page 7

£80,000 FOR CHARITY

Case May Go to Privy Council AUCKLAND WOMAN’S WILL' * (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 25. The fate of a fund of about £BO,OOO, set aside for charitable purposes under the will of Mrs. Catherine Smith, of Auckland, is not yet finally decided, for steps are being taken to have the decision of the Court of Appenl tested before the Privy Council. The Court of Appeal decided last month thaf a clause in the will purporting to dispose of this sum for charities was invalid and that the sum should revert as in intestcy to relatives. Tho Solicitor-General, Mr. H. IL Cornish, has now informed Mr. 11. M. Rogerson, counsel for the '•elatives, that he intends to apply to the Court of Appeal for leave to proceed to <l:e Privy Council. The estate Smith, who was the widow of Captain James Smith, was valued for probate nt £126,595. The residue, amounting to £75,961, was disposed of as a trust to be administered by the New Zealand Insurance Co., Ltd., for “charitable, benevolent, educational or religious purposes,” in or about Auckland. The trustees sought, the direction of tho Supreme Court, and last September Mr. Justice Herdmnn delivered judgment upholding the validity" of the bequests for charitable purposes. The relatives appealed to tho Court of Appeal ngainst this decision and their appeal was successful, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) holding that the phrase used by the testatrix was too wide and indefinite and that the gift must be held void for uncertainty. An order was made that the fund should descend as in intestacy. The Solicitor-General has six months in which to go to the Court after giving notice to the other parties. As tho major portion of the estate consists of Government and local-body debentures bearing interest the fund In dispute iR" steadily growing in value. A decision from the Privy Council is not likely tn be reached in much less than 18 months, and it is therefore likely that, sum will have been considerably Increased before it is finally disposed of.