Some Further Reflections on Re Chardon
![handle is hein.journals/lqr54 and id is 270 raw text is: SOME FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON RE CHARDON.
T is reported of the Duke of Wellington, with what truth I
know not, that upon being greeted with the inquiry
'Mr. Smith, I believe?', he replied: 'If you believe that, sir,
you will believe anything.' When Mr. Hart in his article in
the January 1937 number (Vol. LIII, p. 24) of the Law
Quarterly Review entitled 'Some Reflections on the Case of
Re Chardon' suggests that Re Chardon I was decided as the
result of a misconception as to the precise terms of the will,
then, if I may be permitted to say so with the greatest respect,
he prompts a not dissimilar reflection as to the decent limits to
which credulity should be strained. That Romer J. (as he
then was) and the array of extremely eminent counsel who
assisted him in that case entirely overlooked the difference
between the trusts of the specific bequest of £200 upon the
failure of the cemetery company's interest therein and the
trusts of residue, or that they were ignorant of the decisions in
Re Randell 2 and Re Blunt's Trusts,-this is indeed a proposi-
tion so glaringly at variance with all the probabilities of the case
as to require the most careful substantiation. Judges, being
human, may sometimes err on a difficult point of law like the
rest of us. But to suggest that they do not take the trouble
to read the wills which they are asked to construe is another
matter.
An examination, however, of the report of Re Chardon makes
it reasonably plain that Romer J. did not in fact decide any
such thing as Mr. Hart would have us believe. The arguments
of counsel reported are entirely concerned with the validity of
the gift to the cemetery company and do not touch the question
of the validity of the gift over, unless indeed the rather cryptic
reference to Re Parker' by Crossman (then at the bar) in his
reply is to be construed as an argument that the gift over should
fall into residue. Romer J. at the beginning of his judgment
says: 'The gift with which I have to deal is in these terms',
and he then recites the gift to the cemetery company, but makes
[1928] Ch. 464.
2 (1888) 88 Ch. D. 213.
3[1904] 2 Ch. 767.
4 (1880) 16 Ch. D. 44.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lqr54&div=23&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Some Further Reflections on Re Chardon
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