TWO WILLS FOUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 9

TWO WILLS FOUND

CLAIM TO CHINESE ESTATE EVIDENCE IN COURT ACTION PA AUCKLAND. Aug. 22. The right to an estate, valued at about £IOOO. of a Chinese pensioner, Charlie Wong Chuck, who died in the Auckland Hospital on July 7, 1948, was disputed in the Supreme Court before Mr Justice Finlay. A nephew of the deceased, Wong Ah Toy (Mr T. Henry), asked the court to declare valid a will written in Chinese and dated June .4. This will' appointed plaintiff as administrator of the estate. A driver, until recently employed for 20 years by the Auckland City Mission, Joseph Manning (Mr A. K. North, K.C., and Mr M. A. Brook), asked the court to declare valid a will written in English and signed by deceased on June 1, 1948. This will instructed the estate to be divided among plaintiff and three other Europeans who had befriended the deceased Wong Yook, a market gardener, said he had known the deceased for over 20 years. Accompanied by another man, he had visited the deceased in his room and witnessed the will written in Chinesa Cross-examined, by Mr North, witness said he had known deceased’s nephew for about 20 years. Witness did not tell plaintiff what was in deceased’s will he had witnessed until about two or three months after the deceased’s death. . Witness denied having written the will himself. Wong Ah. Toy said he came to New Zealand in 1920 after his father died in China. His father was a brother to the deceased. Witness’s passage money and bond in New Zealand were paid by the deceased. He had always been on good terms with his uncle. G. B. Sinclair, a solicitor, said he had received the will written in English on the afternoon of the day the deceased died. In company with plaintiff and the solicitor for the defendant, he later made a search of the deceased’s room. When plaintiff found an envelope on which was Chinese writing, plaintiff said it was addressed to himself and opened it. It contained a will written in Chinese. It was dated three days after the will written in English. ~ .. For the defendant, Mr North said it was not necessary to prove forgery of the will written in Chinese. Where there were suspicious circumstances relating to a will as in the case of a will claimed by plaintiff as being genuine, the onus was on those propounding it to satisfy the court that it was the last will of the testator. He claimed that the will written in Chinese showed a degree of construction which could not be credited to a man aged 74 and in ill-health. In evidence, the defendant said he had known the deceased for five or six years before his death. When deceased had suggested making a will, witness told him he should go to the Public Trustee. However, later, witness, at deceased’s request, wrote out a will which gave witness a share in it and appointed him executor. After having it witnessed, it was locked in the safe of the Auckland City Mission. The hearing was adjourned.