JUDGMENT GIVEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 7

JUDGMENT GIVEN.

' Administration of Dr Levinge’a Estate.

has . been Biven by Mr Justice Reed in the case between the executors and the beneficiaries of the estate of the late Dr Edward George Levinge, which was heard in the bupreme Court on October 14 The executors summoned the beneficiaries under the will so that certain, questions might be laid before the Court. Mr Sim appeared for the trustees of the estate, Mr Loughnan for the annuitants, and Mr Burns for the residuary legatees.

His Honour’s judgment reads:—“This is an originating summons to determine certain questions arising in the administration of the estate. The net value of the estate is approximately £14,000, consisting almost entirely of shares and mortgages, with a dwelling house. The deceased died on November 22, 1929. By his will he bequeathed, inter alia, annuities totalling £BOO a year. The balance-sheets for the two years since his death show an income of £443 and £458 respectively, and there is but little prospect of the income in the future being sufficiently increased to meet the deficiency. Speaking generally, the questions are whether or not the annuities are to be paid from income only, and if there is a deficiency whether they are a charge on the corpus, and if so to what extent? * “ There will be an order that, if there be a deficiency in the income to pay the annuities, recourse may be had to the corpus to the full amount of such deficiency. It is unnecessary

in these circumstances to consider the question as to whether the three annuitants are entitled to require the estate to be marshalled so that Mrs Bolton will be paid from the corpus, leaving the income to them. I was informed at the Bar that the annuitants are elderly people; if this be so the amounts required to be paid, to either the Government Life Insurance Department, or one of the old-established insurance companies, to secure the annuities bequeathed might well be considerably less than the amount required to be set aside to provide an income to pay such annuities. The matter is, of course, complicated by the fact that the amounts appropriated fall into residue on the deaths of the annuitants and, therefore, the residuary legatees are vitally interested in the question, and their consent would, therefore, be necessary to any arrangement to purchase annuities. I express no opinion in connection with the matter, but refer the solicitors to the trustees to in re Cottrell, Buckland v. Bedingfield, 1910, 1 Ch. 402, 406. I desire to emphasise that the case has been argued as between the annuitants and the legatees of the true residue only, and I have no heard any argument, nor been asked to express any opinion, as to the position of legatees receiving specific pecuniary legacies. General leave is reserved to apply. Costs as between solicitor and client to be taxed by the Registrar will t>e allowed to each of the parties represented, to be paid out of the corpus of the estate."