APPEAL DISMISSED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 15

APPEAL DISMISSED

£IO,OOO MAORI ESTATE CLAIM TO BE ADOPTED SON COURT FINDS ORDER INVALID [BY TELEGRAFH—"-PHESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON. Thursday Judgment has been- delivered by the Court of Appeal in a case involving a claim to an estate consisting of native lands valued at approximately £IO,OOO. Proceedings were taken in the Supremo Court last year on behalf of the next of kin (nephews and nieces) of Tco Tipene, deceased, for a declaratory judgment aB to the status of the appellant, Robert Victor Tipene (otherwise known as Tie Sueur), of Wellington, labourer, who claimed to bo the adopted son of the deceased. When Teo Tipene died, he left no natural ehjldren surviving, and if the appellant was in law his adopted son, then he would be entitled to succeed to the whole of the deceased's estate. Mr. Justice Reed, before whom the case was heard, made declarations (a) that an order of the adoption of the appellant by Teo Tipene and Meri Tipeno purporting to have been made oraTl.v by a magistrate at Wellington in 1900 was invalid as an adoption order under tho Adoption of Children Act, 1895, and (b) that in law Teo Tipene and Meri Tipene were not on any relevant date husband and wife within the meaning of that ?Vct. Appellant appealed against these declarations on the ground that they were erroneous in law and fact. Respondent in the case was Tutua Teone, of Waiwhetu, an aboriginal native. The joint judgment of Mr. Justice Ostier, Mr. Justice Smith and Mr. Justice Fair came to the same conclusion as Mr. Justice Reed that the oral pronouncement of an adoption order by a stipendiary magistrate in 1900 was no valid adoption order under the Adoption of Children Act, 1895. The appeal was accordingly dismissed.