A WILL PROBLEM

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 12

A WILL PROBLEM

Legatee* in Australia and N.Z. (Special to the “ Star.*’) MELBOURNE, December 14. Mr Justice Macfarlan gave a tentative judgment to-day in the case in which he was asked to say whether £15,000 worth of legacies bequeathed by the will and codicils of Mary Josephine Twopenny, late of York House, Kensington. London, widow, should be paid in English or Australian currency. Mr** Twopenny left approximately £29,362 (Australian currency) in Victoria, and approximately £10,750 (English currency) in England. She was born in England in 1855, came to Australia in 1876, married Richard Ernest Nowell Twopenny three years later, and returned to England with her husband in 1913. In her will and second codicil, however, she declared that her domicile was Australia. The legatees live in Australia. England, America, India, New Zealand and Trinidad. Mr Justice Macfarlan stated that he would allow further evidence to be presented on the question of Mrs Twopenny’s domicile, but if he had to decide that question on the evidence now before him he would say that she was domiciled in England at the time of her death. Assuming that she was domiciled in England, the result would be that the legacies should be treated as meaning pounds in English currency. At present he would make no order.