Diocesan Trustees of the Church of England in Western Australia v Solicitor-General [1909] HCA 66

9CLRB.] OF AUSTRALIA, - 757

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

THE DIOCESAN TRUSTEES OF THE . CHURCH OF ENGLAND wt . APPELLANTS; WESTERN AUSTRALIA .

AND

_ THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL . 7 0 . RESPONDENT.

THE HOME OF PEACE FOR THE DYING AND INCURABLE acon} . APPELLANT; PORATE) 3 Z 3 A as 4

AND

THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL . c : . RESPONDENT.

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA,

Will — Construction — Trustees — Faisa demonstratio— Lunatic asylums— Poor H. C. or A.

houses. 1909. cae, Walter Padbury, by his will dated 29th May 1885, after making a large Pyrat,

number of specific devises and bequests, as to the balance of his real and per- gee, 19, 20, sonal estate, directed as follows :—"I direct that my said trustees shall sell 26. and convert into money such portions thereof as shall not consist of money or 6, == securities for money ; and that the whole of such balance shall be divided Barton and' into three equal parts one of which shall be paid or transferred to the said Cnr 9. Diocesan Trustees of the Church of England in Western Australia, a

second to the Trustees for the time being of the Hospitals and Lunatic

Asylums in the said Colony to be divided among them equally, and the third

to the Trustees of the Poor Houses in the said Colony." A codicil of 6th

Dezember 1897 in no way affected this portion of his will.

Reporter's note.—These two appeals were argued separately, but the Court considered them in the one judgment.

(1909.

Held, as to the second third, that although the Government Lunatic

758 HIGH COURT

Asylum, which was the only one in existence, had no trustees, it was entitled to share pari passu with hospitals, as defined in Home of Peace,for the Dying — and Incurable v. Solicitor-General, 7 C.L.R., 680, the words "trustees of" 5 being an erroneous addition to an adeqnate and sufficient description with con- venient certainty of what was meant. '