COURT INTERPRETS BEQUEST

Southland Times, Issue 23782, 1 April 1939, Page 7

COURT INTERPRETS BEQUEST

HOME CLOSED DOWN AFTER DEATH OF TESTATOR

WELLINGTON, March 31. A legacy of £lOOO under the will of Mr Richard Palmer, a farmer of Feilding, to the Old Men’s Home at Hunterville is to be paid by his executor to the Feltham Children’s Home Trust, Otaki. 1 The latter institution is an incorporated society and is supported and maintained by a religious body known as “the brethren” of which Palmer was an enthusiastic member. Approval of this method of distribution has been given by Mr Justice Reed in the Supreme Court at Wellington. The case came before the Court as an originating summons under the Religious, Charitable and Educational Trusts Act 1908. The plaintiff, Albert Hands White, asked for an order (1) that the legacy of £lOOO bequeathed by Palmer to the Old Men’s Home, Hunterville, become vested in the Bethel Home at Hunterville; (2) approving of the scheme of plaintiffs for distribution by payment to the Feltham Children’s Home Trust Incorporated of moneys representing the legacy, the Bethel Home at Hunterville having ceased to exist at a date subsequent to the death of the testator. If the Court was not satisfied that the Bethel Home, Hunterville, was sufficiently identified as being the Old Men’s Home, Hunterville, it was submitted as an alternative that the legacy was to charity and should be administered in accordance with the same scheme. It was contended by Mr Byrne, for the Public Trustee, that the first identification was insufficient, and second that it was not a charitable legacy and accordingly reverted to the donor’s estate.