New-York tribune., 1901-06-17
STRANGE la " FIGHT ENDS.
TAX COLLECTED on AN ESTATE
WASTED BY LITIGATION.
TRAGIC DEATH OF MR.. AND MRS HERoUEs
IN A MONTE CARLO CAFE RECALLED-A
LONG AND INVOLVED LITIGATION.

After continuous effort for about thirteen
years 10 close the account the State Controllers
transfer tax appraisers in this city on Friday
last collected the transfer the estate of
Ana Rivas de Herques, who during her resi-
dence in this city lived with her husband in
West Twenty-first-st. opposite the Union
Club. She left an estate of $1555O 10 besides
jewelry valued at 81 S01 - The customary X
per cent tax on estates Of decedent persons in
this case amounted 10 $S67 %. The Herques
case is the strangest on record in the Control
ler's office.
Mr.. and Mrs. Robustiano Herques We're natives
of Cuba. Mrs Herques was Miss Ana Rivas the
daughter cf a wealthy Cuban planter from
whom she inherited fortune. Herques was a
hot tempered. eXtravagant man, ond, it is said.
lived largely on his wife's fortune. The family
was well known in Paris and Monte Carlo.
where the Herqueses were frequent visitors on
June 4 1888 Mr. and Mrs. Herques were seated
in a cafe at Monte Carlo. in company with a
brother OF Mr.. Herques. An old family quarrel
was revived, and before any could sop him
the brother shot and almost instantly killed his
brother and sister-in-law. and then killed him
self Husband and wife died within few min
utes of each other.
The question arose at once. Which died first L?
If Mrs Herques died first, then her estate would
go to her husband. II the husband died first
then Mrs. Herques's property would go TO her
next OF kin. Special investigation involving de-
lay and expense necessary in order to de-
termine the order of the dying of husband end
wife and after an extended inquiry IL was de-
cided that the husband died few minutes be-
fore the wife
Mrs. Herques's will proved in the Sur
rogate's Court in this city on November 90
1888. and letters of administration We're issued
to the late Charles Coudert, of Coudert Bros.
Some months subsequently a codicil to her will
was discovered in Monte Carlo and it was
| necessary to bring fresh action in the Supreme
Court to prove It, Not until November 1893
decision reached in this action By this
codicil the general legacies mentioned in the
will of Mrs. Herques were revoked and her
entire estate was left to her husband
In effect she was intestate. Her surviving
heirs were found TO be Maria Lucreca de Rivas
Maria Forencia de Rivas. jose Cirilo de Rivas
brother Ramon FlOrentino de Rvas and Elena
de Rivas and FaustO de Rivas, children of her
brother Manuel de Rivas. Mrs. Herques had
an interest in two villas in Monte Carlo and
$1,000 on deposit with Monroe & Co. Paris but
her business affairs at Monte Carlo We're so
tangled that little was realized from them
To make matters worse. the European rela-
tives the husband asserted rights to the estate
in opposition TO the will, and the contest over
this was long and costly. Her estate kept dwu-
ding under these leakages until little was left
Mrs. Herques was the of property in
Matanzas with face value of $4,000 but this
property in some mysterious way. has shrunk
to little or nothing and the executor was unable
to get hold of any of it,
The schedules attached to the papers in the
long litigation afford a singular commentary on
the costliness of fighting lawsuits on both sides
of the ocean. They show that nearly one-half
of the estate eaten up by legitimate costs.
Daniel j. Holden, of Coudert Bros attorney
for the executors named in the will of Mrs.
Herques, said Yesterday that the was one
of the most involved that had ever come to his
attention.