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REPORTS OF CASES heard in the House of Lords, upon Appeals or Writs of Error, and decided during the Session 1829. By Richard Bligh, Barrister-at-Law. Vol. III. New Series.
IRELAND.
(Exchequer Chamber.)
RICHARD BALL, a Minor, by HENRY WEMYSS, his Uncle and next Friend,—Plaintiff in Error; PATRICK MANNIN, Lessee of Launcelot Shinton Ball,—Defendant in Error.
[Mews' Dig. iv. 81; S.C. 1 Dow and Cl. 380. The modern test of contractual capacity in the case of insane persons and of persons of weak capacity is given in Imperial Loan Co. v. Stone (1892) 1 Q.B. 599. See also Baldwyn v. Smith (1900) 1 Ch. 588, as to lunatic; and notes to Huguenin v. Baseley (1 Wh. and T. L. C. 7th Ed. 247) as to undue influence.]
By a deed in 1762, lands were conveyed to the use of the grantor for life, and after his death in trust for D. S. his daughter, the wife of R. S.; and after her death, to the first and other sons successively of D. S. by R. S., with remainders over, and subject to a power of revocation. In 1763 the grantor, by a will made in execution of the power, directed and desired that if there should be no issue male of the existing marriage, the lands should stand limited (subject to the dispositions of the deed of 1762) to the first and other sons of his daughter, by any other husband.
R. S. died in 1778, leaving D. S., his widow, and four sons surviving. Soon after his death, D. S. married R. B., by whom she had a son A. B.
J. S. the eldest son of the first marriage, having been from his infancy a person of weak capacity, in the year 1785, as soon as he came of age, joined with his mother and father-in-law, [2] as party to a deed, by which reciting his title as tenant in tail in remainder, subject to his mother's life interest in the lands, and an agreement which had been made for providing thereout, a present maintenance for him; and that the younger children of his mother had been left without provision by the deed of 1762; and further reciting certain expenditure made on the premises by R. B. the husband of his mother, for the benefit of the inheritance, the lands were assigned to trustees for a term of five hundred years, in trust to secure to J. S. an annuity of £, and subject thereto to the use of the mother for life; remainder to R. B. for his life, remainder to trustees for a term, to raise portions for the younger children of D. M. his mother, and subject thereto to the use of J. S. and the heirs male of his body, and in default of male issue to such other of the children of D. M. as she should appoint, and in default of appointment, to R. S., E. S., and A. B., three of her children; remainder to her right heirs.
A fine and recovery were levied to give effect to this deed, which was registered in 1789.
J. S. died in 1794. In 1800, L. S., the second son of the first marriage, filed a bill in Chancery against R. B. and D. his wife, to establish the deed of 1762, and to set aside the deed 1785 on the ground of fraud. This bill was dismissed by the plaintiff in 1805.
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