The Gazette 1972

Lawyer in Almshouse had £58,500 will

A retired solicitor, who spent the last 10 years of his life in a Church of England home for the destitute, left £58,557 before duty. Of this £100 was left to the home, St. Cross Hospital, Winchester, Hants. Canon Kenneth Felstead, in charge of the home, said yester- day : "This has shocked me." It has cost "well over £3,000" to keep Mr. William Young since he was admitted as a "red brother" in 1961. "Someone else, a genuine destitute, could have bene- fitted. He told us he had no money, and being a Christian organisation we don't start asking for proof," said Canon Falstead. Red Brother The home was set up to house poor men who are called "black brothers", and later extended under a second foundation scheme for men of "noble poverty" who were known as "red brothers". Mr. Young came into the second category, but his will has disclosed that he had German and Chelsea

porcelain valued at £23,000 and thousands of pounds worth of shares. Canon Felstead said : "I find this rather embarrassing. It certainly isn't funny. If men of his intellectual calibre have these sort of financial benefits they have no right to come here. We are certainly going to have to scrutinise other entrants more carefully," he added. Mr. Peter Pitt, a Winchester solicitor, acting as executor of the will, said last night: "I can't remember when the will was made. He certainly made it out while he was staying here." The porcelain and much of the estate had been left to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, he said. Some of the money has been left to his two remaining brothers, his only living relatives. "I knew he was a brother at the hospital, but it's not up to one solicitor to tell another solicitor how to make out his will." {Daily Telegraph, 11 December 1971)

Record £123,375 damages for student car crash victim

A record award of damages in a personal injuries action in this country was made by a jury in the High Court, Dublin, yesterday, when it assessed damages at £123,375 in an action brought by a 23-year-old U.C.G. arts student who was paralysed from the neck down as a result of a road accident. He is John Mitchell of Ballisodare in County Sligo, and the jury, after a four-day hearing, brought in its verdict after an absence of three hours. Mr. Mitchell brought his action against Michael Malee, also of Ballisodare. He stated that, on the morning of 30th December 1968 he was a passenger in a motor-car owned by Mr. Malee and driven by Mr. Malee's son, Michael John Malee. They were returning from a dance at Strandhill, County Sligo, when the motor-car left the road and collided with a tree. Mr. Mitchell said that at the time of the accident he had passed his first arts examinations at U.C.G. and planned to be a vocational teacher. In the accident he received, among his injuries, a badly comminuted fracture of the sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae, with paralysis below this point. He had suffered loss of sensation and loss of bowel, bladder and sex functions.

It was stated that he would always be confined to a wheelchair and that he would require constant atten- dance for the remainder of his life. His enjoyment of life had been totally destroyed. The defendant, in his defence, denied that there had been any negligence in the driving of his motor-car and claimed that the accident was caused by a condi- tion of ice on the surface of the road which could not reasonably have been foreseen, anticipated or observed, the effect of which was to produce an uncontrollable skid involving no negligence on the part of the defen- dant. The jury found that there had been negligence on the part of the defendant's driver and assessed loss to date at £1,575; future loss of earnings at £31,000; extra cost of building a special house, £2,500; cost of employing staff in house, £35,000; medical attendance in the future, £1,500; miscellaneous, £1,800, and general damages, £50,000. The previous highest figure awarded in an action of this type was £96,796, to a 32-year-old Co. Donegal miner, Thomas McGeehan, in April, 1970. This award was taken to the Supreme Court on appeal, but the case was settled out of court for £70,000. {Irish Times, 11 December 1971)

26