A BEQUEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12647, 3 June 1919, Page 6

A BEQUEST.

_ COURT’S DECISION SOUGHT. [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, June 2. It occasionally happens that charitable bequests are made to institutions which cither do not exist or are wrongly described in testators’ wills. One such case cropped up at the Supreme Court to-day. It concerned a bequest of about £IOOO made by an old lady to a church in England which she had attended many years ago. The application was hoard by Mr Justice Stringer. The plaintiffs were the trustees under the will of the late Mrs Mary Ann Jackson, of Auckland, widow, and the defendant was the Rev Arthur Stacker, vicar of St George’s Church, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England- Testator, by her will, loft the whole of her estate, amounting to about £IOOO, to the senior clergyman of the Church of England officiating at St Mary’s Church, Newcastle-under-Lyme, the money to be used for repairs or additions to the church. Inquiries were made by the trustees, and it was found that there was no church called St Mary’s at Newcastle-under-Lyme, the two churches of the Church of England there being named St George’s and St Giles's. The Court was therefore called upon to decide the question as to -whom the money should be paid. Affidavits made in England were put in showing that many years ago, before she left England, the testator regularly attended St George’s Church. < and that the vicar of St Giles’s was making no claim to_ the money. On behalf of plaintiff it was submitted that the bequest, being a charitable one, evidence ■was admissable to show which the testator intended was to receive tho money, and that even if it were not admitted, and the Court awarded tho " Cypres ” doctrine, dividing the money between the two churches in the town, the fact .that one church had disdained the bequest would mean, that St George’s would pet the money. The Judge concurred with the views expressed and ordered the estate to he handed over to defendant, costs to bo paid out of the estate.