1. ) AZIZAH BINTI HARUN 2. ) RAMLAH BINTI HARUN 3. ) ROKIAH BINTI HARUN v 1. ) Jabatan Ketua Pengarah Tanah & Galian (JKPTG) 2. ) Pentadbir Tanah Daerah Kerian 3. ) Zulkarnin Bin Mat Desa

Case Significance

Dismisses a repeated challenge to an estate land transfer and distribution order as barred by res judicata and an abuse of process, and directs that the faraid distribution among the heirs be pursued through the Syariah Court consistent with the Distribution Order.

This High Court (Taiping) decision concerns an originating summons by which the plaintiffs sought to set aside a grant of letters of administration and related declarations in an estate matter. The plaintiffs applied under section 13 of the Small Estates (Distribution) Act 1995 (Act 98) to cancel a Distribution Order, and sought declarations, invoking Article 13(1) of the Federal Constitution (the guarantee against deprivation of property save in accordance with law), the National Land Code and section 340 of that Code on indefeasibility of title, and the Rules of Court 2012. The dispute concerned whether the transfer of the deceased's land lots to the plaintiffs' mother was valid and whether a court order dated 1 April 2022 had denied the plaintiffs' rights under Article 13(1).

The court dismissed the plaintiffs' application. It held that the action was barred by the principle of res judicata, because it merely repeated issues that had been raised and decided by earlier courts, no appeal having been brought to the Court of Appeal against the earlier order. The court found that the action amounted to an abuse of court process, the plaintiffs being unable to accept that the transfer by the earlier proprietor to their mother on 5 July 2007 was not invalid.

The court further observed that the appropriate course, so far as the distribution of the deceased's estate among the heirs was concerned, was for the relevant faraid (Islamic inheritance) proceedings in the Syariah Court to be followed by the third defendant on behalf of the other heirs, so that the estate could be divided fairly and each heir could receive his or her rightful entitlement, consistent with the Distribution Order dated 8 January 2024. In the result, and in the interests of justice to all the heirs, the application was dismissed with costs. The judgment illustrates the operation of res judicata and the abuse-of-process bar in the context of repeated challenges to an estate distribution and land transfer, and the allocation of the faraid distribution to the Syariah Court process.