APPEAL COURT HEARS ARGUMENT ON CASE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 77, 31 March 1931, Page 6

APPEAL COURT HEARS ARGUMENT ON CASE.

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 31. The Court of Appeal was engaged this morning in hearing the case of Rhodes-Moorhouse v. the Commissioner of Stamp Duties. By the will of the Hon William Barnard Rhodes, who died in Wellington on February 11, 1878, his estates, known as the Highland Park Estate, Wellington, and the Heaton Park Estate, Rangitikei, were, devised to trustees upon trust after the death of the daughter of testatrix, Mary Ann Rhodes, for the first and every other son of his daughter in tail male. Miss Rhodes subsequently married Edward Moorhouse, the eldest child of their marriage being William Barnard Rhodes Rhodes-Moorhouse, an. officer of his Majesty’s Forces, who was killed in France on April 27, 1915. He was survived by his wife, the present plaintiff, and his two-year-old son. Mrs Moorhouse, sen., died on April 2, last year, so that deceased, W. B. R. Rhodes-Moorhouse, had never entered into possession of the estate tail, nor was he ever entitled to the income of such estate. *1 he Commissioner of Taxes, in assessing the estate duty in respect of his estate, included the estate tail in unsold portions of Highland Park and in the proceeds of the Heaton Park and portions of Highland Park sold. Plaintiff, who is administratrix of her late husband’s estate, objected to the assessment, and the case, as stated, was prepared for the opinion of the Supreme Court. This, however, was moved into the Court of Appeal for argument and is being taken to-day.