TEARING UP A WILL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

TEARING UP A WILL

WOMAN'S FUTILE RUSE FRAGMENTS PRESERVED PROBLEM FOR COURT In a futile effort to lesson the amount of probate duty ber children would have to pay on ber estate, Mrs. Annio Finney, late of Forest Hill, near Tunstall, Victoria, widow, tore up ber last will a fortnight before she died. The torn pieces were preserved by one of her daughters, in the absence of definite instructions to burn them, and the last will, gummed together, was filed in the Probate Office, with the will mado before it. The Supreme Court will now have to decide which will is effective. Mrs. Finney died on Juno 17, last, leaving real estate valued at £9l At and personal property to the amount of £l3B. Bv will dated Juno 10, 192J, she gave to her children, equally and absolutely, a block of land, subject to their paying her debts, funeral and testamentary expenses and the probate and estate duties on her estate. The residue she gave to her trustees, upon trust, to pay the income to her children for life, and afterwards to her grandchildren. On August 16. 1930, Mrs. Finney made another will, by which she gave a property to her son John absolutely; another property to licr daughter Annio absolutely; and a third property to her daughter Harriet absolutely. The residue she disposed of as in the previous will. On May 1, 1934, while

ill in bed, Mrs. Finney asked for a tin box containing her private papers. Holding up the. 1930 will, she said, according to an affidavit filed by her three children, "This is the will to bo destroyed, so that this one (holding up the will) will become effective. I want the 'three houses I have left you to be included in my estate. You will not have so much probate duty to pay. On June 1, Mrs. Finney again took her last will from the box and tore it into several pieces. Then she said, "I wonder if 1 havo done right bv destroying this. Perhaps it would be better to burn it." She handed the pieces to her daughter Harriet, n d the latter replaced them in the box as she had received no definite instructions to burn them. "Our mother frequently made statements," the children's affidavit stated, "that no probate duty was chargeable on property 'left in an estate,' meaning, wc understood, property not left absolutely, and we did not know she was in error in that belief. Wo believe that had she known probato duty would be charged in any event she would have left us her property unconditionally."

The final clause in Mrs. Finney's last will reads:—"lt is my earnest desire that my son and daughters shall be affectionate to one another, always helpful in time of trouble, and particularly helpful and considerate to either daughter or my son's wife should any one of them be left a widow."