MAN'S STRANGE WILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19490, 20 November 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAN'S STRANGE WILL.

FORTUNE IN COLD STORAGE. KEPT FOE SIXTY' YEARS. A GEE AT LEGAL BATTLE. A recent will, which has aroused much attention, is that of Mr. Frederick Thomas Atton, a pawnbroker, of Stamford, Lincolnshire, who left a fortune of over £50,000. After leaving some legacies and an annuity, he directed that the residue of his fortune was to accumulate during the longest period allowed by law, but not later than the year 2000. At the end of that period the capital and accumulated interest are to be divided between the Manchester Infirmary, the Gloucester Infirmary, Guy's Hospital, St. Thomas' Hospital, and" the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Atton'a fortune, however, will not be allowed to accumulate until the year 2000. The longest period during which the Jaw of this country allows money to accumulate after death is 21 years. This is the sequel to one of the most sensational wills on record, that of Mr. Peter Isaac Thellusson, a Genevese merchant, who went to London and made a large fortune there. * He left £IOO,OOO to his wife and children and assigned the rest of his wealth, valued at between £600,000 and £BOO.OOO, to trustees, with instructions that it was to accumulate during the lives of his three sons and of their sons. Not a penny was to be paid out until the death of the last of his grandsons. If, when that occurred, there was no heir of his own blood, the accumulated fortune was to bo applied to the discharge of the National Debt. Protests by the Public. The family endeavoured to have the will set aside, but without success. It- was held to be quite valid in law. But public reeling had been aroused. It was calculated that by the time the Thellusson fortune came to be paid out it might reach the staggering total of £140,000,000 and ♦hat to allow money to accumulate in this way was a menace to the public interest. This feeling was so widespread and so strongly expressed that the Accumulations Act was passed. This measure, which is known as the Thellusson Act, lays down that- a testator's property cannot be allowed to accumulate for more than 21 years, and that any direction to the contrary in a will is void. The new Act, however, did not prevent the instructions in the Thellusson will being ' carried out. It only applied to future cases of the same kind. So it was not until fifty-nine years after Mr. death that the residue of his fortune could be disposed of. Then a new question arose. Who was entitled to the money? The death of the last grandson of the old merchant was the signal for a new legal battle to decide the ownership of the fortune. Legal Contest lasts Three Years. The fight raged for three years, the dispute being carried through every Court up to the House of Lords, and in tho end it was found that the Thellusson fortune was not so big, after all. Legal costs had swallowed up so much of it that it was very little larger than when Mr. Thellusson died. So if the reason of his strange will was a desire to have his name associated with a fortune of record proportions—a charge levelled against the dead man by the critics of the document when it was first a subject of controversy —his calculation was proved wrong by the event. But if Mr. Thellusson's motive was vanity, as some people said, his will certainly achieved its object, though not in the way, he had intended. For he had given his name to an Act of Parliament, and the various lawsuits concerning the will and the discussion regarding it had made him famous.