DECLARED INVALID

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18254, 24 November 1933, Page 11

DECLARED INVALID

E2TIEED FARMER’S WILL BEQUEST TO NEPHEW (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The will of the late Mr John Duncan, a retired farmer, of Darfield, was djsplared i aval hi by Mr Justice Ostler this morning. The amount concerned under the will was £BOOO, of which it was stated 1 liftt £IOOO left to Daniel McLaughlin, a nephew, was the main point at issue. One son of the testator was the plaintiff. .'The judge said it seemed clear that the testator was suffering from senile decay, which had produced a marked diminution in his mental faculties. While the solicitor who had prepared the will under instructions from the testator had acted quite honestly, yet •he seemed to have taken insufficient care. The solicitor should have been more on his guard when he discovered that a senile old man was living with his nephew and proposed, for the first time, to leave £IOOO away from Jiis wife and children, particularly as the solicitor had known that the testator had made two previous wills, not leaving anything away from his wife and children.