MARGARET GOONSWARDENE Vs. EVA MOONEMALE GOONEWARDENE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The point for decision upon this appeal arises in the following circumstances. A testator made his will on 7 August 1913. It contained a disposition (hereinafter called the settled legacy) in the following words: I give and bequeath to my said wife all the moneys now invested by me on mortgage bonds or promissory notes and all cash in deposit to my credit in my No. 2 account in the Mercantile Bank of India Limited Galle subject to the direction that she is to have the interest derived therefrom up to the time of her death or remarriage as aforesaid. Thereafter the same shall vest absolutely in my said three nieces." He then made various bequests, including one which ran thus : " (g) The rest and residue of my cash found In my possession at the time of my demise and also the money in deposit to my credit in my No. 1 account in the Mercantile Bank of India Limited Galle, in the Bank of Madras Colombo, in the Government Savings Bank and in the Post Office Savings Bank and the amount of my Policy of Insurance together with the profit thereof and all other moveable property absolutely to my said wife Margaret." He made a codicil dated 9 August 1927, which he declared to be "a codicil to the last will and testament made by me and dated the 7 day of August 1913.

(2.) It gave a pecuniary legacy to a servant, and disposed of a certain house ; and it contained these words : " Save as hereby altered or modified I hereby confirm the said will." The testator died on 22 August, 1927, and the will and codicil were duly admitted to probate. At the date of the will the testator was entitled to moneys invested on mortgage bonds or promissory notes to an amount of some Rs. 39,000. Those debts had all been repaid long before the date of the codicil. At the latter date, the testator was entitled to moneys invested on mortgage bonds or promissory notes to an amount of Rs. 2,14,200, all of which represented loans made by the testator since the date of his will. Further, at the date of the will the cash in deposit to the testator's credit in his No. 2 account in the Mercantile Bank was Rs. 1,250. At the date of his death, as also at the date of the codicil, it was Rs. 6,920.

(3.) The question arose whether the Rs. 2,14,200 passed under the bequest of the settled legacy, or under the gift of " all other moveable property " contained in Cl. (g). If under the latter, the widow would take absolutely ; if under the former, she would only be entitled to a life interest determinable on remarriage. A similar question arose in regard to the said sum of Rs. 6,920. The Judge of the District Court of Galle was of opinion that the republication of the will by the codicil brought the date of the will down to the date of the codicil, and that the words of the will must be interpreted as if they had been written in 1927. He accordingly decided that "the testator's nieces are entitled to a reversion of the moneys invested on bonds and notes on the date of the codicil, and to the cash in deposit under account No. 2 in the Mercantile Bank."