{"id":4807,"date":"2023-05-08T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/?p=4807"},"modified":"2024-09-09T09:11:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:11:33","slug":"family-law-distribution-of-assets-illegitimate-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/family-law-distribution-of-assets-illegitimate-child\/","title":{"rendered":"FAMILY LAW &#8211; DISTRIBUTION OF ASSETS \u2013 ILLEGITIMATE CHILD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A had mistress and a wife; both of whom had given birth to a child each. A died without a will. Can the child of the mistress be entitled to succeed and inherit A\u2019s property under the Distribution Act 1958?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Distribution Act 1958 (\u201c<strong>DA 1958<\/strong>\u201d) applies when a person dies without a will. This is called intestate in law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When A dies intestate leaving a spouse and issue but no parent or parents, spouse is entitled to 1\/3 and the issue the remaining 2\/3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If there are parents, then parents 1\/4, spouse 1\/4 and the issue shall be entitled to 1\/2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This is set out in Section 6 of the DA 1958.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is the illegitimate child entitled to succeed and inherit A\u2019s property?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Yes. Section 6 of the DA 1958 uses the word \u201cissue\u201d and not \u201cchild\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Section 6 of the DA 1958 did not state only legitimate child could inherit the property of the intestate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Federal Court in <strong><em><u>Tan Kah Fatt &amp; Anor v Tan Ying<\/u><\/em><\/strong> [2023] 2 MLJ 583 held the words \u201cchild\u201d and \u201cissue\u201d are different.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Although child is defined as \u201clegitimate child\u201d in Section 3, Section 6 of the DA 1958 on distribution uses the word \u201cissue\u201d and <strong><u>not<\/u><\/strong> child.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The dictionary meaning of the word issue suggest descendants by blood lineage. Not dependent on the matter of legitimacy of the descendant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As long as the child of the mistress is a descendant by blood lineage, he\/she is entitled to inherit the property of A under the DA 1958.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(Case in Point: <strong><em><u>Tan Kah Fatt &amp; Anor v Tan Ying<\/u><\/em><\/strong> [2023] 2 MLJ 583)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A had mistress and a wife; both of whom had given birth to a child each. A died without a will. Can the child of the mistress be entitled to succeed and inherit A\u2019s property under the Distribution Act 1958?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1577],"tags":[1705],"class_list":["post-4807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-law","tag-family-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4810,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions\/4810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}