BEQUESTS DISALLOWED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18202, 22 September 1922, Page 4

BEQUESTS DISALLOWED.

SPECIFIED GIFT ADEEMED. DURING LIFE OF TESTATOR. A gift under a will of a mortgage for £500, which had been cancelled before the death of the testator, was held to have failed in a judgment delivered by the Chief Justice, Sir Robert StouC, at the Supreme Court yesterday. The plaintiff was Mrs. Isabella Cowen (Mr.Rudd) and the defendant E. E. Neumegen (Mr. Hogbeh) as executor of the will of Colin Mcintyre, of Opotiki. - in giving judgment that the gift had failed, His Honor said that in a long series of cases extending from the dayis of Lord Hardwicke, it had been held Chat where a legacy, as in the present case, was specific —a bequest of a special mortgage —and the mortgage had ceased to exist, there was no gift. It had been argued tha? there was a distinction in this case because of the use of the words " principal and interest moneys." But there were many cases where the sums bequeathed had been described as " moneys,' but, if they had been paid, the fact that they were described as second, or being part of a fund, had not prevented the rule laid down as to ademption applying. A claim under the 6ame will by Mrs. Mary McLean (Mar. Rudd), of Kansas, Saskatchewan, Canada, was not allowed, as she had never come to New Zealand within the time specified in the wi\l, and consequently she was not entitled to any property under the will. An order was made that the costs of both parties should be paid out of the estate.