CURIOUS WILL CASE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10143, 3 May 1911, Page 2

CURIOUS WILL CASE

STRANGE STORY OF A GRANT OF PROBATE. TESTATRIX STILL ALIVE. [FKOM Ova, COBKESPONDENT.] LONDON, March 25. A remarkable will case came before the Law Courts this week. Probate had been granted on the will of a lady in New Zealand on the application of her husband, from whom she had separated. It now appears that the lady is not) dead.

Ai) application was made in the Probate Division on Monday by Mr James Capstack Calvert, as lawful attorney of Mrs Mary Augusta Ogden, to revoke a grant of probate on the ground that the testatrix was still alive.

Mr W. 0. Wills appeared for the applicant, and Mr Randolph for the respondent, Ralph Tumiicliffe Ogden. Mr W. 0. Wills said that Mary Augusta Ogden was married on August 10, 1898, and executed a will in favour of her husband, tho present respondent, on September 14, 1898. On Jtdy 11, 1907, a deed of separation was executed, and on that day Mrs Ogden went to New Zealand, where she hajs resided ever since. On July 10, 1907, Mrs Ogden had executed a power or attorney in favour of Mr James Capstack Calvert, which gave him the general powers under which he was now moving on behalf of Mrs Ogden to revoke the grant of probate. On June 29, 1910, the respondent obtained a grant of probate from the District Probate Registry at Liverpool of the will of September 14, 1898, and to obtain that grant he had. sworn that Mary Augusta Ogden had died on October 30, 1907, at Alf red ton, Wellington, New Zealand. It appeared, however, that on August 24, 1910, Mrs Ogden was writing to Mr Calvert, thanking him for the receipt of dividends which he used to forward quarterly to her. The respondent, too, was in receipt of £2O a year from his wife so long as he did not molest her. The respondent has also written a series of abusive letters to his wife between December 2, 1909, and February 16 ; 1910. On October 23, 1910, a citation was extracted to bring the probate into the Principal Registry at Somerset House, and was served on the respondent on October 29.

On November 7, 1910, he filed a joint affidavit with one Richard War brisk Geidart, "a Liverpool book-keeper." Paragraph 2 of that affidavit was as follows:—"I was advised by letters from certain persons at Alfredton, New Zealand, of the death of my wile on October 30, 1907, and subsequently 1 obtained from the Registrar-General of Deaths at Alfredton aforesaid an official certificate of her death. This I handed over to the manager of the Premier Bank, St Peter Square, Manchester. I have since tried but have not succeeded in getting it from the bank, which is now in liquidation. It was on this evidence that I obtained probate of the will dated the 29th day of June, 1910, which to my knowledge was never revoked by any subsequent will of my late wife."

It further appeared by the affidavit of Mr J. C. Calvert that the respondent 1 ' had broken his covenant not to molest or interfere with tho said Mary Augusts Ogden." A will by the latter, dated Juno 17, 1907j revoked the will of August 10, 1868. Mr Calvert had written to Mrs Ogden during the autumn of 1910, and he had heard from her as recently as January 11, 1911. Mr W. W. Cooles, Deputy-Registrar-Goneral at Wellington, on January 5, 1911, wrote saying, " I find that in 1908 search was made at the request of Mr 1?. T. Ogden for the record of the death of Mrs Ogden, but no trace of it could be found. Mr Ogden was informed of the result of the search. .

. There is not and never was a Registrar of Deaths at Alfredton." Mr Randolph, in answer, referred to paragraph 2 of the respondent's affidavit, and left the matter in his Lordship's hands. The president, in revoking the grant of probate dated June 29, 1910, with costs of the motion against the respondent, directed that all the papers in tho case should be sent to the- Public Prosecutor.