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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)
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