The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-23
PUZZLES FOR JUDGES.
Decisions That Have Been Made On
No Evidence.
London Mail.


Presumption of survivorship constitutes
a very knotty point which comes up for
solution from time to time in law cases.
If two or more relatives. heirs to each
other, perish in one common accident
e. G., shipwreck, fire or a failing building
and NJ evidence is forthcoming as 10
which was the last 10 die, the question OF
survivorsnip important to the executors
of each has to be decided on purely pre-
sumptive. grounds, and the arguments
brought forward when such cases come
into court are often in the highest degree
ingenious and interesting.
a few examples, culleG from the records
of the last three centuries, are well worth
consideration. In 1879 a French lady and
her little 4-year-old daughter were
drowned in the River Loire. Some i'm
portant property was involved. and. on
appeal. the parliament of Paris decided
that the daughter succumbed first. being
by far the weaker of the two parties. On
the other hand, case, also in Paris, was
decided in the contrary way only a few
years later. A mother and two children
of tender years were murdered in the
dead of night. The wfdower claimed his
wife's property on the ground that the
children had survived their mother, and
the property was adjudged to him, the
argument admitted being thar the muir
derer would first dispatch the victim he
feared most.
A singular case was recorded in 1865 A
father and son, fighting in the French
army which in alliance with that of
cromwell, defeated the Spaniards 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. Ii de-
cided: ID That the daughter died Tin
law first, because her VOW being volun-
tary. was conSummated instantaneously,
whereas her fathers and her brothers
wounds were not necessarily Immediately
fatal: t2) that the father. not having the
physical powers of resistance possessed
by the son. died before him; 80 that the
son. therefore. survived. case some
what similar to the last came on in the
English court of chancery fifteen years
later. General 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. claimed his property An uncle ton
the mothers side), as hear to the daugh-
ter, did likewise, and a representative of
the second wife also claimed.
On behalf of the generals heir ii was
argued that. the ship having foundered
in a storm the general was probably on
deck and his wife and daughter. being
below. would be drowned first.
Counsel for the daughters heir urged
that the general was old, and consequent
~ feeble, while the daughter was OF par
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
of the disaster, and the case
was so complicated that the court, in
despair Of arriving at a conclusion adj
vised a compromise 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
and the height of ingenuity was.
reached by the executors of a
lady drowned with her husband. when
they contended that in his efforts to save
his wife the man doubtless exhausted
himself and so sank first
Cases such as these continue to arise
not infrequently. and. although they are
usually settled without going into court
1t is felt that 1t would be an advantage if
the law on the subject were more clear
than 1t is at present