Ho Hee Yik v 1. ) TEE YEN CHONG 2. ) TEE SAY HONG

Case Significance

Illustrates how a court determines the existence of a customary marriage and adjudicates a challenge to the authenticity of a will in an intestacy dispute over a deceased's estate.

This High Court decision at Johor Bahru concerns a probate and estate dispute turning on the validity of a will and the existence of a customary marriage, brought by the administrator of a deceased husband's estate against two defendants who claimed to be executors and beneficiaries of the deceased wife under an alleged will. The deceased wife had died intestate, on the plaintiff's case, and her husband, as her sole beneficiary by reason of their customary marriage, had administered her estate before he too died; the plaintiff, as administrator of the husband's estate, continued the claim after his death. The defendants denied the customary marriage and asserted instead that the deceased wife had left a will under which they took. The litigation had a tangled history of competing suits and applications between the deceased husband and the defendants over probate, citation and letters of administration, several of which were withdrawn as circumstances and the deaths of the parties intervened. The central questions were whether a valid customary marriage between the deceased husband and the deceased wife had been proved by the oral and documentary evidence, and whether the will propounded by the defendants was genuine or a forgery. Weighing the evidence, the court found that the deceased husband and the deceased wife had indeed contracted a customary marriage and stood in the relationship of husband and wife, and that the will relied upon by the defendants was forged and therefore null and void. On those findings the court held the plaintiff entitled to the reliefs sought, granting declarations that the deceased husband was the lawful husband of the deceased wife, that the will was null and void, that the deceased wife died intestate with the deceased husband as her sole beneficiary, and that the plaintiff as administrator of the husband's estate could proceed to obtain a letter of administration of the wife's estate. The judgment is a useful illustration of how a court determines the existence of a customary marriage and adjudicates a challenge to the authenticity of a will in an intestacy dispute.