THE COURTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1209, 3 May 1895, Page 28

THE COURTS.

COURT OF APPEAL.

Argument in tlie case of Warena te Hakeke (appellant) v. Meiha Keepa te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp) and others (respondents) was continued at the Court of Appeal yesterday week. Mr Barnieoat closed his argument in support of the appeal at noon, and was followed on the same side by Mr Morison, who spoke until 3 p.m. Mr Edwards then began his reply for the respondents and had not finished when, at 4 p.m., the Court adjourned. In the Court of Appeal on Monday argument was commenced before the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Conolly and Mr Justice Denniston in th.o Dunedin appeal case of Dr Eccies and other (appellants) v. James Mills and others and Mrs Isaac and others (respondents). This is an appeal from a judgment of Mr Justice Williams, given in the administration suit of Mills and others v. Isaac and others, a suit brought to administer the estate of the late Mr John Jones, a wellknown former resident of Dunedin, who died there in the year 1869, leaving a very considerable amount of real and personal property. A great many questions^arose in the suit, but only one is involved in the present appeal, namely, as to which portion of the testator’s estate was liable to pay a sum of <£2500 awarded against the estate for damages for the breach of a covenant entered into by Mr Jones in a lease given by him to Sir F. D. Bell, cf certain land known as Meadowbank. After the lease had been given the testator devised the land comprised in it to certain members of his family, now represented by the appellants (Eccies and others). The covenant -was that the testator should lay down part of the land in English grass within a year from the date of the lease. The testator died about six months after the date of the lease, and at the end of the year the covenant had not been performed, and Mr Bell recovered <£2500 as damages for the breach of it. The damages were paid by the trustees of the estate, the respondents, Mills and others, out of the general residuary estate, and this payment was now challenged by the persons entitled to the residuary estate, the respondents, Mrs Isaac and others, who contended that it should have been paid by the persons to whom the Meadowbank property had been given by the will. Mr Justice Williams decided that the owners of Meadowbank (Eccies and others) were liable to pay the amount, and ordered them to refund it to the general residuary estate, and from this decision Messrs Eccies and others now appealed, contending first that the damages should have been paid by the general estate, and, secondly, that even if they were not so payable it was too late now to recover the amount from them, and that the residuary legatees could only look to the trustees of the will for repayment. Mr George Cook and Mr M. Chapman appeared for the appellants, Mr F. R. Chapman and Mr Hosking for the respondents (Mills and others), and Mr Sim and Mr Woodhouse for the respondents, Isaac and others. The case had not finished yesterday.