A STRANGE CASE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IX, Issue 2967, 17 June 1885, Page 3

A STRANGE CASE.

(rr:oh p. 0*>O" coBP.E-roNDEXT.) . Timap.c, June 16. Tho Supreme Court was to-day fully occupied with tho hearing of a civil case of an extraordinary character. It was one in which Henry and James Saunders, of Waimate, sought to recover from Thomas Cabot possession of a certain piece of land or its equivalent. Shortly put, tho facts of the case for the wero these : In 18">0 the father of the plaintiffs, known »3 " Jimmy the Needle," and formerly a ferryman at Waitaki, purchased from the defendant a section on the Great Northroad in the centre of the town of Timaru. Tho purchase-money was paid, and an ajreement was drawn out. In tho following year James Saunders married Elizabeth Wixon, the issue of the marriage being the plaintiffs to the present suit. In 1862 Saunders, sen., died, leaving a will in these terms : "I, James Saunders, Feive all my property to my wifa and family to be eqnnlly divided amongst them." That will, which was dated "The Spit, Waikou.\iti, 22nd October, 1862," and attested hy Alex. Mitchell, Denis Garvty, and William Hayton, was never proved, and the attestors cannot now be found. The section remained unoccupied for some time, but subaequeutly the widow took possession of it, and about 1867 she applied to tho present defendant for a conveyance of the property. This Cabot declined to give, saying that Mrs Saunders was not entitled to it, adding that ah&h&d not been lawfully married to Saunders and that her children had not been born in wedlock. After some negotiation, C.ihot agreed to give Mrs Saunders, who had again married, L 75 on tho condition that she ceased to make any claim to the land and delivered to him the agreement of sale. This was done, and the agreement «ai burned by Cabot, who registered himself aa tho owner of the land, and has since received all the rents* The plaintiffs. having nowjeome of age, claimed that under their father's will they are each entitled to a third of the property, and that their mother had no right to part with their shares. They, therefore, seek to recover the land, which is of considerable valae, together with the accrued rents. The defendant dented that Saunders, sen., over bought the land or that he destroyed the agreement. He denied that Saunders had b«>en married to the mother of the plaintiffs, and challenged the genuineness of the will. He further claimed that ha i 3 righuoliy possessed of the land. A large number of witnesses were examined, and the ciae adjourned until to-morrow, when counsel will address the Court.