WORKMAN'S WINDFALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

WORKMAN'S WINDFALL.

DUBLIN HARNESS MAKER. HEIR TO £150,000. An* estate worth at least £150,000 lias been . awarded by the Supreme Court of the United States to Mr. Edward Corcoran, -harness-maker, Dublin. The estate was left by an Irish-American named John Sullivan, who died at Seattle, U.S.A., in ISOO. There , were many claimants to the -property, but the Court- has now decided after eight years that the heirs are Mr. Corcoran and Miss Hannah Callaghan.. of Cork, first cousins of deceased. Miss Callaghan, however, died three years ago; and the whole estate therefore falls to Mr. Corcoran. A claim !by United States Senator Piles to a • portion of the estate is also recognised. Miss Callaghan, who died while the litigation over' the estate was in progress, and without realising a penny of her cousin's riches, was an unassuming peasant living m county Cork. Sullivan's death in 1900 leaving no will, brought'about a legal battle, which had its inception in the Fedei'al Court, Averit; to the Circuit Court of Appeals, to-the Superior Court, and finally as a last resort to the Supreme Court of the States. The estate consists of the Sullivan Building and 160 acres of' laud near , Ballard. There Mere many petitions from pretending heirs. Marie Carrau, a French tutor, filed a nuncupative will alleged to have been, made by John Sullivan. Her story was supported by her sister and her brother-in-law. According to the statement of Miss Carrau, Sullivan sought to learn French, and came to live at their home as a boarder and studied French under Marie's tuition. Sullivan. it was stated in the American Courts, became greatly attached to his tutor, and one night sent for her and her sister and brother-in-law. Sitting in front of the fire in the Carrau home he told Marie Carrau, in the presence of these witnesses, so the story goes, that he wished to marry her; also that his estate would go to her upon his death, and he called upon the others to witness the statement. This nuncupative will was later discredited, and pronounced by Judge Eraser "conceived in fraud and a plot of a crafty mind to secure possession of a valuable estate."\ Subsequent, developments led to the sending of Mr. R. W. Prigmore, deputy prosecuting attorney, to Ireland in an effort to get evidence, with the result that Corcoran's claim has been upheld. . , ' ■