BEHIND A PICTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14103, 3 July 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

BEHIND A PICTURE.

STRANGE STORY OF DESTROYED c!y/; : ■ WILL. ■ - *• . Fob- over a year a -will lay for safety hidden, behind a picture, and then it was destroyed -by order of the man who hud drawn it up. The matter came before 1..r. „ Justice Bargnivc Don no in',.'the. Probate Division, and involved an estate of £7000, left : by William ,Lewis, a graziery, of Leo--minster, Herefordshire. The testator's son, Robert Lewis, a, member of the , Imperial Yeomanry, asked for a declaration that -hia". father died' intestate. This was opposed : on the ground that he fully destroyed the will in order to defeat testator's wishes. The elder Mr. Lewis was an old man, who died in March 1 of last year. According to the son's Story, his father promised he should have, everything, as when the will was ■;•■ made plaintiff ; expressed his - disap- , of its ■ provisions, although he was the principal legatee. At the beginning of 1900 the son went out to the South African war. - Returning the following year on furlough,: his father wished him to remain' at home, and to induce him to do so said all the property would come to him. The son continued "at home, looked after his father's business, and got married. His wife died at the end of 1903, and plaintiff afterwards married his deceased "wife's sis'ter. ; Just before the second marriage the father handed over the will to his son to keep, and it was secreted by the son behind a picture in his room. It remained there for a considerable time, until the old man asked for if back, and it was placed in a safe. Subsequently, having occasion to go to, the safe, the father took out the will 'and handed it to his son, i told him, it was stated, to do as he wished with it, and thereupon, at the father's " request, the document was burnt and revoked. At later periQds *the father ■, was asked if he would make another will, and flatly refused to do so, saying he wag satisfied with things as they were. Defendants denied there had been any revocation by! the old man. j Robert Lewis, plaintiff, who was in Yeomanry uniform, = told the court he objected to being tied down in the will, : and he | always told his. father so. There were occa- ! sional "sets out" between himself and his father. His father had old-fashioned ideas about the.price of meat. Otherwise they were ,on good terms. Mr. Bayford (for I plaintiff): It is alleged ! you destroyed the. i will without the consent of your" father, I and against his wish.; Is there any truth in the suggestion?— None. , . ■>

AFTER THE WILL WAS BU'UNT, ;.-..- witness said, he asked his father if he wished to see a solicitor and make another, and the Old man replied: " No, lawyers are like doctors, they 'want money." Mr. Willock (for defendants): Do you know that your father always complained von were unreliable and extravagantl never ' : had money to be extravagant with. Father was a very near man.'" The .son denied that he drank to excess. He admitted using bad language to the old man under'great provocation.,, Was : that when you were complaining that he had tied "up his money under the will so that 'you could not touch it during your lifetime I—No. Did you ever assault or threaten to assault your father?— may have threatened to, under provocation. He was very hasty tempered' and suspicious, always thinking people were robbing him. -~ Witness said he secretly married his deceased, wife's 'sister, and they went over to Birmingham to see Mr. Pritchard, who had married a woman whose husband was living. (Laughter.) Did you say to Pritchard, "We come to see about that safe key. I want one made. I want to get the will out?"— This is all made up. Did you afterwards say Pritchard sent you a key which wouldn't fit, and that you sent it back, and that ho .Sent you "another which opened the "safe?— Witness: I don't remember saying it. In replv to further, questions witness admitted that his father had told him to take great. care of the will. He had nowhere to lock it "up. He thought that; behind' the picture was the safest place at his disposal. He had heard of another will being found; behind a picture. Did you say you had looted at the tombstones of the Lewis family in the churchyard, and that it seemed they lived for ever, meaning that yo*a wished your father would die ?-—l might have said[it. Didn't you thrash your wife unmercifully and ■'disfigure / her?-—No.' ' The case was adjourned. . -..; ■•■■' ■:-'■'■■-<• ;