to the residuary personal estate of the testatrix E. F. and to the proceeds of sale of her real estate or the residue thereof, it may be declared that your Suppliants as next of kin of the said testatrix are entitled to such residuary estate and to such proceeds of sale or to distributive shares therein. And that Your Majesty may be pleased to direct that the Lords Commissioners of Your Majesty's Treasury may repay or re-transfer (subject to all proper allowances) all moneys, stocks and funds paid or transferred in pursuance of the said Order on Further Consideration. And that the funds and moneys so to be repaid or transferred may be administered and distributed among the next of kin of the said testatrix living at her death or those claiming through or under them respectively according to their respective rights and interests. Dated the day of (Signed) G. H. Claim to Proceeds of Real Estate and Personal Estate of an Intestate 1-26. [Facts.] [Title, &c., as in the previous Form.] money on deposit and £ 27. Your Suppliant therefore humbly submits that it ought to be declared that C. D. was the heir-at-law of the testatrix E. F. and was entitled to the said sums of £ cash and any interest so transferred and paid as aforesaid to Her late Majesty's Paymaster-General and to the said balance paid as aforesaid by the receiver to the account of Her late Majesty's Paymaster-General's cash account at the Bank of England in pursuance of the said order of the day of And that Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct by warrant under Your Royal Sign Manual that the Paymaster-General shall be ordered, after providing for Government duty, to transfer and pay to your Suppliant, as the legal personal representative of the said C. D. the said sums of £ money on deposit and £ cash, and any interest, and the balance paid by the receiver to the account of Her late Majesty's Paymaster-General's cash account at the Bank of England, in pursuance of the said Order of the so transferred and paid as day of aforesaid to Her late Majesty's Paymaster-General. Your Suppliant therefore humbly prays that Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct this Petition to be endorsed with Your Majesty's fiat "Let right be done." And your Suppliant will ever pray, &c. Dated this day of (Signed) G. H. Counsel for the above-named Suppliant, A. B. 1–44. [Facts.] Another Form. [Title, &c., as in the first Form.] 45. Your Suppliant humbly submits that under the circumstances hereinbefore appearing an inquiry ought to be directed by Your Majesty's Honourable Court as to who were the persons entitled by virtue of or according to the Statutes for the distribution of intestates' estates or otherwise to the personal estate of A. B. as to which she died intestate living at the time of her death and whether any of them are since dead and if so who are their respective C.P. EE legal personal representatives and in what shares and proportions such next of kin and legal personal representatives are entitled to the said sum of £ and the interest thereon. 46. And that upon such next of kin being ascertained it may be declared that such next of kin and legal personal representatives respectively are entitled to the said sum of £ transferred as aforesaid to the said Assistant PaymasterGeneral and the Solicitor to the Treasury together with the interest thereon at the rate of 21. 10s. per cent. per annum. 47. And that thereupon Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct by a warrant under Your Royal Sign Manual that the Assistant PaymasterGeneral and the Solicitor to the Treasury should be ordered after providing for Government duties to distribute the said sum of £ and the said interest among the said next of kin and legal personal representatives of the said testatrix in the shares and proportion to which they shall respectively be found entitled as aforesaid. Your Suppliant therefore humbly prays that Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct this Petition to be endorsed with Your Majesty's fiat "Let right be done," and your Suppliant will ever pray &c. By His Majesty's Attorney-General for and on behalf of Our Lord the King. Sir R. B. F. His Majesty's Attorney-General on behalf of Our Lord the King gives the Court to understand and be informed as follows: 1. The will codicil affidavit Chief Clerk's certificate order and several other documents if any whatsoever in the Petition of Right respectively mentioned or referred to are not any of them admitted to be therein sufficiently or correctly set forth or stated. 2. The Attorney-General does not admit any of the allegations contained in the paragraphs of the Petition of Right numbered respectively from 10 to 21 inclusive or any of such paragraphs. Delivered the day of by the Treasury Solicitor 276 Royal Courts of Justice London Solicitor to His Majesty's Attorney-General. Defence and Counterclaim of the Attorney-General. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. Chancery Division. Mr. Justice In the Matter of the Petition of Right of A. B. Between A. B., Suppliant and The King. Defence and Counterclaim by His Majesty's Attorney-General for and on behalf of Our Lord the King delivered the day of by the Solicitor to the Treasury (Law Courts Branch), Royal Courts of Justice, London. DEFENCE. Sir R. B. F., His Majesty's Attorney-General, on behalf of Our Lord the King, gives the Court to understand and be informed as follows:- [set out Defence]. COUNTERCLAIM. And the Attorney-General on behalf of Our Lord the King further gives the Court to understand and be informed as follows:- [set out Counterclaim]. The Attorney-General on behalf of Our Lord the King counterclaims : 1. To have such accounts as aforesaid taken. 2. Payment by the Suppliants to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury of what shall appear to be due to the said Commissioners upon the taking of such accounts. She joins issue thereon with His Majesty's Attorney-General for and on behalf of Our Lord the King. of Delivered by the above-named Suppliant this his Solicitor. day of by K. L. BOOK IV. Escheat, CHAPTER I. NATURE AND SUBJECT MATTER OF ESCHEAT. General Observations. ESCHEAT, or the reverter of land to the lord of the fee, occurs propter defectum tenentis. At the present time it may be said generally that, for practical purposes, escheat, except in the case of copyholds, is to the King, either in right of his Crown or in right of his Duchy of Lancaster or his Duchy of Cornwall, or to the personage for the time being entitled to the possession of the Duchy of Cornwall, and that it occurs only on account of the actual failure of the heirs of the holder. In the case of escheats within the Duchy of Lancaster the King takes in right of his Duchy; but in the case of escheats in liberties of the Duchy not lying within the county he takes in right of his Crown, by the Revenue, Friendly Societies and National Debt Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 72), s. 24. Escheats in the County Palatine of Durham belong to the King in right of his Crown, by the Durham (County Palatine) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 19), s. 1, and the Durham (County Palatine) Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 45), s. 5. The Intestates Estates Act, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 71), s. 6 (printed below, p. 736), which extends to the Duchy of Lancaster by sect. 8, enables the Crown to waive its right by Treasury warrant, and thereupon the Treasury Solicitor may convey the property. Formerly escheat or forfeiture took place, not only on actual failure of heirs, but also on attainder or corruption of blood, causing a constructive failure of heirs; but this was substantially put an end to by the Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), s. 1, which provides that "no confession, verdict, inquest, conviction or judgment of or for any treason or felony or felo de se shall cause any attainder or corruption of blood, or any forfeiture or escheat, provided that nothing in this Act shall affect the law of forfeiture consequent upon out lawry." Again, aliens formerly were regarded as having no inheritable blood to transmit, and therefore as being unable to have heirs ; but the Naturalization Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 14), s. 2, now enacts that “real and personal property of every description may be taken, acquired, held and disposed of by an alien in the same manner in all respects as by a natural born British subject; and a title to real and personal property may be derived through, from, or in succession to an alien, in the same manner in all respects as through, from, or in succession to a natural born British subject," with certain provisoes which are here immaterial. This section, however, is not retrospective, and the Crown would be entitled to land acquired by an alien or a trust of land created in favour of an alien before the Act. (Sharp v. St. Sauveur (1871), L. R. 7 Ch. 343; 41 L. J. Ch. 576.) Escheat by actual failure of heirs, which, as we have said, is the only form of escheat which is now of real importance, may occur― (a) by the death of the holder, leaving no known or ascertainable heir, and without having disposed of his interest by alienation in his lifetime or by will; (b) by the death of the holder, being a bastard, and without having disposed of his interest as aforesaid, and without lawful issue. If such heir or issue, in either case, is a monster, the law will not recognize its right. (Co. Lit. 7 b.) But the doctrine of escheat on failure of heirs is, it has been said, not to be applied to the failure of successors to a corporation which has been dissolved, and in such a case the lands revert to the donor, and do not escheat to the Crown. (Co. Lit. 13 b; 10 Vin. Abr. Escheat, A. 3; Dean and Canons of Windsor and Webb's Case (1614), Godb. 211.) But in Johnson v. Norway (1623), Winch, 37, the Court inclined to the opinion that in such a case there was an escheat. Coke's view, however, is cited with approval in A.-G. v. Lord Gower (1740), 9 Mod. 224, 226, and Hastings Corporation v. Letton, [1908] 1 K. B. 378; 77 L. J. K. B. 149. Secus, as to the personalty of a dissolved corporation, which the Crown takes as bona vacantia. (See Cunnack v. Edwards, [1896] 2 Ch. 679; 65 L. J. Ch. 801; In re Higginson and Dean, [1899] 1 Q. B. 325; 68 L. J. Q. B. 198, and below, p. 494.) All this is, of course, subject to any modern statutory provisions affecting the destination of the property of dissolved companies. It must be admitted that the principle enunciated by Coke as to the fate of lands of a defunct corporation is not very strongly supported by authority, and does not seem to be very convincing in itself. The question has been raised on several occasions in comparatively recent times, and varying opinions have been given upon it, but the matter has not come before a Court for decision. The better opinion, however, seems to be that Coke in laying down the |