M.P. - Cahill v. Spence and Others

Subject_1 Presumption of Life Subject_2 Subject_3 Facts: Circumstances in which held (aff. Lord Kinloch) that there was no evidence to prove that a person was dead.

This case was raised for the distribution of the estate of the late Captain John Cahill, who died at the Cape of Good Hope in 1853, survived by a brother, Lieutenant David Cahill, who died in 1854. Mrs Mary Wilson or Cahill, the widow of David, was appointed administratrix of the estate of John by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury; and the main question raised in this process was whether a third brother, named Patrick Cahill, was alive, and if dead, when he died.

If he predeceased either John or David the whole of John's estate went to David's widow. If he survived David, the one-half of John's estate would fall to him, or to his next of kin.

It appeared from the proof which was led that Patrick sailed from London in 1852 for Australia, on board the ship Mermaid, that he wrote from off the Cape, but that nothing had been heard of him since.

After the proof had been taken, Mrs Spence appeared as a claimant, alleging that she had been married to Patrick in 1843, that he soon after deserted her, that she had obtained decree of adherence in February 1852, and also aliment at the rate of £30 a-year from 1843. She then obtained a decree of divorce, and now claimed £270 of arrears of aliment decerned for and £203 of interest.