SHARE IN ESTATE

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1935, Page 5

SHARE IN ESTATE

DECISION OF SUPREME COURT. ALLEGED INVALID MARRIAGE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Timaru, March 2. Judgment declaring that Isabelle Ellis Pattison, Auckland, spinster, was entitled to a one-third share in a trust fund now valued at £19,227 established by the late Captain Henry Cain, formerly of Tiinaru, on February 26, 1870, was given by Mr. Justice Johnston in the Supreme Court yesterday. I ** .Plaintiff based her claim to participate in the trust fund on the ground that she was the daughter of Jane Ellis Espie, step-daughter of Captain Cain. Her mother, plaintiff contended, on the death of her first husband, William Johnson Newton, married Jonathan Melvin Pattison,'whom plaintiff asserted was her father.

The defence was founded on the allegation that at the time Jane Ellis Newton married Pattison on July 5, 1886, her husband William Newton was still living, that the second marriage was invalid, and that the plaintiff was illegitimate and so was not entitled to a share under Jhe deed of settlement of 1870 which related to legitimate children only. The judge found no evidence sufficient to convince him that Newton was alive in July, 1886, and presumed him dead, and as it was a legitimate inference that Mrs. Newton did not intend to commit bigamy he should uphold the second marriage.

The defence that the second marriage was invalid failed, and the plaintiff was entitled. to a third share in the settled fund of 1870.