NO WILL LEFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23320, 13 April 1939, Page 16

NO WILL LEFT

LATE CHIEF JUDGE ESTATE OF £13,998 [from our own corrf.spoxdf.kt] MELBOURNE, April 7 Another notable instance of a person eminent in the law leaving no will has been revealed this week through an application made to the Supreme Court of Victoria for letters of administration in the estate of the late Chief Judge George James Dethridge, of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, who died on December 29. . Before he began his lengthy term m the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, Chief Judge Dethridge had been a judge of the County Court of Victoria, and he was aged 70 years when he died after an illness which lasted several weeks, lie left estate valued at £13.998, consisting wholly of personal property. His son, Kenneth Gordon Dethridge, who is associate to his father s successor, Chief Judge Beeby, applied for letters of administration. Chief Judge Dethridge left a wife, two sons and two daughters. During the last, few months of his life Chief Judge Dethridge was busily engaged as chairman of the ltoyal Commission appointed to report oil doctors fees under the national insurance plan. That investigation received a serious setback through the deaths of counsel in the Kyeema air disaster in September. The commission's report had not been completed when Chief Judge Dethridge died, and the question of appointing a successor caused some difficulty owing to the fact that all the evidence had been taken. However, the Federal Government's later decision to curtail drasticallv the original insurance scheme virtually made the completion of the Royal Commission's report unnecessary.