Rudge v Weedon
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 26 May 1859 |
| Date | 26 May 1859 |
| Court | High Court of Chancery |
English Reports Citation: 45 E.R. 84
BEFORE THE LORDS JUSTICES.
[216] budge . weedon. Before the Lords Justices. May 26, 1859, ATmarried woman who had obtained a protecting order under 20 & 21 Viet. c. 85, 3. 21, on the ground of causeless desertion, was made a Defendant without her husband to a suit for the administration of the estate of a testator who died after the alleged desertion, giving her a beneficial interest in his property; and a decree was made for accounts and inquiries. Shortly after this, the protecting order was dischafged on the application of the husband, on the ground that there had never been any desertion. The Plaintiff thereupon obtained a supplemental order under 15 & 16 Viet. c. 86, s. 52, to bring the husband before the Court. Held, that such an order was proper. Per the Lord Justice Turner whether such an order would have been proper if the wife had been the executrix, qucere. This was an appeal from an order of Vice-Chancellor Kindersley, discharging with costs a supplemental order obtained under 15 & 16 Viet. c. 86, s. 52, for bringing before the Court George Bickerton Rudge, the husband of the Defendant Elizabeth Grace Budge. William Weedon, the father of Mrs. Rudge, died in July 1858, leaving a very informal will, by which he gave his freehold and leasehold estates and some other property to his wife for life, and after her death to Mrs. Rudge absolutely for her separate use. This gift was so worded as to make its extent very doubtful. He then proceeded to give Mrs. Budge an annuity of .300 a year for her separate use, without power of anticipation. He then gave to her two daughters ,1000 each, with benefit of survivorship, if either died under twenty-one, and unmarried, but if both died undier twenty-one and unmarried, the 2000 was to become the property of Mrs. Weedon, if living, if not it was to go to Mrs. Rudge. Then followed a disposition in favour of the two grandchildren, after their mother's decease, of all the property which had been given to her on the death of Mrs. Weedon, with a clause substituting their issue; and in the event of their having died without issue in Mrs. Rudge's lifetime, there was a gift to the heirs, executors or administrators of Mrs. Rudge. The testator then gave his residuary property to Mrs. Weedon, and ap-[217]-pointed her his sole executor. This will was proved by Mrs, Weedon. In August 1858, Mrs. Rudge, who had for many years been living with her parents, and separated from her husband, obtained from a police magistrate an order under the " Act to Amend the Law relating to Divorce and Matrimonial Causes in England," 20 & 21 Viet. c. 85, s. 21, by which order, after stating that the magistrate was satisfied of the fact of desertion, and of its being without reasonable cause, it was ordered that the earnings of Mrs. Rudge, arid all property acquired by her since the eommeBcement of the desertiou, which desertion he found to have taken place on the 31st of January 1843, should belong to Mrs. Rudge, as if she were a, feme sole, and should be protected from her husband...
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