FABULOUS FORTUNES

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1930, Page 6

FABULOUS FORTUNES

“MILLIONS” IN CHANCERY. If' the Court .of Chancery had £230,000,000 of dormant funds awaiting unknown “rightful owners” ; it would scarcely have enough to satisfy all the people who believe that fabulous fortunes await them when they can prove descent from some particular person or other. But an official of the court has revealed that less than £1,000,000 all told is locked up in Chancery in this way, and that very little of that actually belongs to anyone now living. , Not only have several. departments of the law courts' in the Strand been harassed .for years . by people seeking “their ; millions,” . but the officials who ■ have had ■ to deal .with these pathetic optimists have seen their, eyes becoming duller, their faces more drawn, and their health giving way under the’ stress of waiting. Novelists and dramatists will lose a favourite inspiration now that the myth of the lost fortunes has been finally exploded, says a London newspaper, but it is unlikely that all the vast army of claimants will be, convinced. More than a score of families of limited means have “family subscription funds” to enable them to get what they regard as their fortunes. Hundreds of people believing in the myth ha #3 spent their all, working through unscrupulous agents entirely unconnected with the law, and are still hanging on to hope. These people, one and all, will think that the- “nearly £1,000,000” available must be theirs. But how discouraging is the truth. A correspondent has obtained from official sources the first full statement of how this million is made up, and it discloses that no one living has any hope of getting a “big fortune” out of Chancery. Almost without exception, the sums likely to belong to “rightful heirs” still living range from £3 to' £50 —and would be more than absorbed by the legal expenses entailed in getting them. There are certain amounts of £lOO or £2OO, but these go-back anything up to 200 years. The biggest sums of all are money put into the hands of the court at the time of the South Sea bubble. Ab the rightful owners could not be found then, it is unlikely that their heirs can prove their claim to-day. These sums represent an indebtedness of the court, which came about in the following curious way:— In the old days it was the system for the money of litigants to be put into the hands of .the Masters of the Court for safe keeping. Some of the Masters, however, secretly invested the funds, and no doubt made big’profits. Most of this money was lost when the South Sea bubble was pricked. One Master committeed. suicide—another fled. Some of the litigants got their money back, but it is still owing to others. Eager claimants might like to know the whereabouts or that “nearly £1,000,000.’” It has been spent. ; ; I-, 9AI1 C ’th'a't had accrued up to the.'year’f ii,.-<:q;ii; i; “ ■■ i. •( • •>

1890 was need for building the law courts. Since then a considerable amount has been handed over to the National Debt Commissioners. This docs not mean that there would be no money available for a successful claimant. The money, would be forthcoming out of the pocket of the taxpayer—but the officials of the court do ii t anticipate that the taxpayer will .<jycr .be called’ upbp..'io oblige io that way.