£12,000,000 IN DISPUTE
DRAMATIC COLLAPSE OF CASE. A small scrap of yellow paper, containing a , few words written in ink, was produced in ( court at Philadelphia recently, and forthj with the legal buttle for £12,0*00,000, which | promised to .stir all America, suddenly eeas-
ed. It was a suit regarding the will of the late Mr. William Weightman, the chemist, who laid the foundation of hist immense fortune by the sale of drugs during the American Civil War. Mrs. Jones Wister, deceased's daughter-in-law, brought an action disputing the testator's bequests as regards M*rs. Anne Weightman Walker, the dead man's daughter, and chief beneficiary.
The conclusion of the trial came just at the moment when it was least expected. Mrs. Wister seemed on the point of proving that the deceased intended to benefit her handsomely, and had ridiculed the suggestion that she really wanted to many the late Mr. Weightman before she wedded his son.
Apparently the Wister party had an idea that there was an important codicil somewhere benefiting the daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Weightman Walker's counsel ingeniously excited them on that point. They admitted the existence of something in the way of a writ-ten document penned by old Mr. Weightman, and they kept it hidden. Mrs. Wister's lawyers demanded it with great vehemence. Then they got it, and the case collapsed.
Even now only four or five people know precisely what was writ on the paper. According to one statement it was " the exact opinion of old Mr. Weight-man regarding Mrs. Wister." Everybody is asking the question, What was written on the paper? Relations of the Walker family said that under no circumstances would they divulge the secret, "out of consideration lor Mrs. Wister." Counsel on both sides were equally reticent. Technically, as a result of the production of this paper, the case is indefinitely adjourned, but the newspapers, in reportinir the action, describes it as "practically witßdxikwu.."- • • »-
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)
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317£12,000,000 IN DISPUTE New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)
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