SEQUEL TO HONEYMOON TRAGEDY.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13420, 18 March 1914, Page 7

SEQUEL TO HONEYMOON TRAGEDY.

The defendants in a case heard in New; York-which-concerns a-fortune of £2,000,000-left by Mr and Mrs Charles Fair, who were both killed in a motor accident in France 12 years ago, are Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs. Mr. and Mrs. Fair, had been married in America just before the honeymoon trip, and • the principal question which the courts have to decide is which of tho two died first. There are three plaintiffs, Messrs. Theodore and George Letter £>nd Mi® Mabel-Towle, children of the sister of the deceased woman. Mrs Vanderbilt and Mrs Oelrichs are the sisters of the late Mr Charles Fair. The Court of California, which have had the case before it, took the view that Mr Fair- survived his wife, and decided that his relatives should be the beneficiaries. Owing to the claim of the plaintiffs that New York was the legal residence of Mr and Mrs' Fair, the case has been taken to New York, and there is a possibility of the California Court's decision being upset. The case has been proceeding practically ever since the young couple met their fate, and relatives on both sides have died; but the nephews and niece of Mrs Fair are left to prosecute the claim, and they declare that their interest in the estate amounts to at least £.100,000. Mr Charles Fair was the son of the late Senator Fair, of California, who made a large fortune in mining and I other ventures.