BEQUESTS UNDER A WILL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 180, 2 August 1940, Page 7

BEQUESTS UNDER A WILL

SON'S CLAIM IN COURT APPLICATION FOR SHARE IN HIS FATHER'S ESTATE THREE-FIFTHS GIVEN TO WANGANUI CHARITIES An application by a son to obtain a greater share in his father’s estate came before the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday. It was contended on his behalf that his father, in bequeathing three-fifths of his estate to various charities in Wanganui, had shown a moral neglect of duty towards a son who had always helped him.

The action was taken under the Family Protection Act, evidence given on behalf of tl/e applicant being directed to support a contention that the testator was not justified in cutting his son out of his will because he was against his son’s marriage. The applicant in the action was Peter Anderson Haggart, for whom Mr. A. C. Tomkins, of Hamilton, appeared. Mr. A. A. Barton (Wanganui) represented the Guardian Trust and Executors Company of New Zealand, Ltd., trustees under the will of the late Peter Haggart. Mr. Ralph Brown (Wanganui) represented three infant grancfcnildren, who have received legacies of £7OO each under the will. Mr. H. M. Keesing (Wanganui) appeared for the Wanganui Returned Soldiers 4 Association, which was granted a legacy of £2OO under the will. Mr. B. C. Haggitt (Wanganui) represented the Wanganui Orphanage, which is to receive a residual legacy from the estate; St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, which has been given a specific legacy of £lOO under the will; and Mrs. G'entworth, who obtains a specific legacy of £2OO. His Honour, Mr. Justice Blair, asked whether other beneficiaries under he will were to be represented—Wanganui Beautifying Society, St. Andrew’s Church, Wanganui Hospital Board, and City Council. No representative appeared. His Honour: Apparently they are not. worrying. Mr. Barton said that his instructions were 1o submit to the judgment of the Court. He pointed out that the City Council was given £l5O under the will to care for the grave of the wife of the testator and also £lOO for the Wanganui Museum and £lOO for the Sarjeant Gallery. Facts Outlined Mr. Tomkins, outlining the facts of the case, said that the testator died on October 3, 1939, aged 76. His estate amounted to £5393 Bs, which, after the payment of death duties was reduced to slightly more than £5OOO. Under a will made on September 27, 1939, a few days before his death, testator left £2lOO to three grandchildren (children of a son then dead), £2OO to the testator’s landlady at the time of his death (Mrs. Glentworth>, £l5O to the Wanganui City Council for upkeep of his wife’s grave, and approximately £2450 to various charities. There was no provision for his only living son. Testator, said counsel, had two sons, one of whom, who had died before his father, left home 23 years ago. That son had done nothing in accumulating the estate which the father had since disposed of under the will now in dispute. The applicant was now 30

years of age and had had.no education beyond the primal y school. At his father's request be had left school and, between the ages of 14 and 22, had worked ori his father’s farm at Monovale, near Cambridge, which was bought in 1920- boom times. The boy did not work for wages, but received pocket-money from time to time. At the age of 22 and until he was 26 an arrangement was made with his father to receive £3 a week, Out he actually did not re.ceive it. During the last four or five years the son was a trusted manager of the farm and operated upon the bank account. That brought the matter up to the year 1936, when the son got married. It was then, counsel said, that the testator’s attitude towards his son changed. His Honour: He had committed the crime of getting married, if you like to call maniagp a crime. Three Successive Wills Mr. Tomkins detailed three successive wills made by the testator. The first was in 1926, under which all was left to the son, the applicant in the present action, and nothing to charities. In July, 1936, just after the Monovale farm was sold, without the son being consulted, a will was made which directed that £l5O be paid out of the estate for the upkeep of testator’s wife’s grave, and £5OO to a he usemaid in the boarding house in which the testator was staying. The son then was left only a life interest in a farm bought at Ngaruawahia since the Monovale property had been sold, and the whole of the residue of the estate was left to the orphanage at Wanganui, after termination of he life interest. It was submitted by counsel that that life interest was a very small one, in that the Ngaruawahia pi oper ty was mortgaged. In October, 1936, counsel continued, testator made a third will, in which he left only £5O to the son, £2OOO to be equally c«vided among all his grandchildren living at the time of his death on them attaining the age of 21, and various gifts to charities. Counsel said that the son was put on to the Ngaruawahia farm as a manager on terms that he had to pay all the outgoings, including interest. The father then apparently had de-