Yap Siew Yee & Co.

On the court record

Yap Siew Yee & Co. is a Malaysian firm whose reported matters before the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) span probate and estate, land-security, company, contract and family law. In the succession field it has appeared in a matter concerning the revocation of a grant of letters of administration and the removal of a co-administrator under section 34 of the Probate and Administration Act 1959, engaging fiduciary duties, the retention of an estate trust-account passbook and a failure to cooperate in the administration of the estate. In the land field it has litigated an order for sale under the National Land Code, arguing that the originating summons was premature under section 254(1), that the moneylending agreement underlying it was void for non-adherence to the Moneylenders Act 1951, and that there was cause to the contrary under section 256(3).

The firm's contract, company and family work is varied. It has appeared in a full-trial dispute on the duty of a stakeholder and the right of forfeiture of an earnest deposit under a stakeholder agreement, and in a post-winding-up leave application under section 471 of the Companies Act 2016, arguing that the remedies sought, declaratory relief and specific performance, could not be granted by the winding-up court or through the proof-of-debt process. On the family side it has litigated the guardianship and custody of an illegitimate child and whether joint guardianship was suitable, and the variation of a custody and access order under the Guardianship of Infants Act 1961 and the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, with the welfare of the child paramount.

In the stakeholder dispute the firm engaged whether an earnest deposit had been validly forfeited and when the due-diligence period began to run, together with a third-party indemnity claim, questions turning on the construction of the stakeholder agreement. The reported profile is that of a private-client and commercial-litigation practice engaged with estate administration and the removal of administrators, land-security and moneylending questions, stakeholder and post-winding-up disputes, and family matters concerning the guardianship and welfare of children.