MILLIONS AT STAKE

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1934, Page 7

MILLIONS AT STAKE

YOUNG IRISHMAN’S CLAIM. LEGAL BATTLE EXPECTED. A young Irishman now living in London has just furnished a claim to a fortune of £14,000,000. As a result, a huge legal battle may be reopened in the United States Courts; thousands will be spent by the contesting parties in their campaigns; and one of the greatest will puzzles of the past 50 years will bp disposed of. the claimant is Mr. Dermdnt Torney, aged 28, of "56 Clarendon" Road, London, W.IL, and His uncle is his legal representative’.' The fortune was left by Mr. Alexander Torney Stewart, who died in 1876. By ’a will, which the Torney family contested 25 years ago, the whole of the fortune had passed ip the dead man’s American solicitor, who, in turn, willed it. to his son-in-law.

“There are still several points to be cleared up, but here are the main facts of the story,” Mr. Dermot Torney told a Sunday Chronicle representative recently. “Alexander Torney Stqwart, with a capital of only £370, went to the States from Lurgen, in Ireland, determined to . make a fo.rtune. His first undertaking was to ship a cargo of linen from Belfast to New York, and he made quite a lot of money from it.

“Then Alexander got interested ip real estate, and it was in this line that he amassed his huge fortune. He had never married, and it was expected that he would leave his fortune to near relatives, but a will, which has been contested, bequeathed the money to an American solicitor. “The case was fought in the Supreme Court of America by my family. But we had to give up. The long case had been so costly that pur family' claim temporarily had to be dropped. That was 25 years ago. In the meantime, much valuable new information has been traced, and in my opinion the money is really mine.” Now Mr. Tprney is haying the whole cage reopened. When the last mail left London he w as expecting to leave for America .to set the legal machinery in action. If successful, he says he will share the fortune with several relatives.