The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-29

Decisions That Have Been Made on
No Evidence.


From the London Mall,
Presumption OF survivorship constitutes
a very knotty point which comes up for
solution from time TO time in law cases.
If two or more relative, heirs 20 each
other, perish in one common accident
e. g., shipwreck. fire or a falling building
and no evidence is Forthcoming as TO which
was the last to die, the question of sur
worship important 10 the executors of
each, has to be decided on purely presump-
tive grounds, and the arguments brought
forward when such cases come into court
are often In the highest degree ingenious
and interesting.
A few examples, culled from the records
Of the last three centuries. are well worth
consideration. In 1929 a French lady and
her little four-year-old daughter were
drowned in the River Loire. Some import
ant property was involved, and, on appeal,
the Parliament Of Paris, decided that the
daughted succumbed first, being by far the
weaker of the two parties. On the other
hand, case, also in France, was decided
I'm contrary way only a few years later.
A mother and two children of tender years
were murdered in the dead OF night. The
widower claimed his wife's property on
the ground that the children had survived
their mother and the property was ad-
judged to him, the argument admitted be-
ing that the murderer would first dispatch
the victim he feared most.
A singular case was recorded in 1868. A
father and son, fighting in the French
army, which, in alliance with that Of
Cromwell, defeated the Spanards at the
battle of the Dunes, fell during the en-
gagement. which commenced at noon. A
daughter of the father, on the same day at
noon, became a nun, thereby rendering
herself dead in law, and the court had to
settle which of the three survived. 1t de-
clded: % That the daughter die aA1n law)
first, because her vow, being Voluntary,
was consummated instantaneously, where
as her fathers and her brothers wounds
were not necessarily Immediately fatal;
20 that the father not having the physl-
cal powers of resistance possessed by the
son, died before him; CD that the son
therefore survived. A case somewhat
similar to the last came on In the English
Court of Chancery fifteen years later. Gen.
StanwiX, his second wife, and his only
daughter by his first wife, were drowned
in a shipwreck in the Irish Channel. A
nephew Of the general. as his heir, claim
ed his property. An uncle ION the moth
er's side) as heir to the daughter, did
likewise, and a representative of the Sec
ond wife also claimed.
On behalf of the generals heir il was ar
gued that, the ship having foundered In a
storm, the general was probably on deck.
and his wife and daughter. being probably
below, would be drowned first Counsel
for the daughters heir urged that the
general was old, and consequently feeble
while the daughter was Of particularly
strong constitution and nerve; and counsel
for the wife's heir brought arguments as
to the probability of the wife having been
the last to expire.
Not a soul was saved, and there was.
therefore, no shred of evidence as to the
incidents Of the disaster, and the case was
so complicated that the court, in despair
of arriving at a conclusion, advised a com
promise between the parties, which was
eventually adopted.
Where drowning has been the cause of
death the fact that one OF the parties and
not the other could swim is sometimes adj
duced, and the hight of ingenuity was,
perhaps, reached by the executors of a
lady drowned with her husband, when
they commended that In his efforts to save
his wife the man doubtless exhausted him
self and so sank first.
Cases such as these continue 20 arise
not infrequently, and, although they are
usually settled without going into court II
is felt that IL would be an advantage If
the law on the subject were more clear
than II Is at present.