{"id":5048,"date":"2024-09-09T09:11:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/?p=5048"},"modified":"2024-09-09T09:11:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:11:30","slug":"distribution-of-assets-legal-rights-of-children-born-in-unregistered-customary-marriages-to-inherit-intestate-estates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/distribution-of-assets-legal-rights-of-children-born-in-unregistered-customary-marriages-to-inherit-intestate-estates\/","title":{"rendered":"DISTRIBUTION OF ASSETS &#8211; LEGAL RIGHTS OF CHILDREN BORN IN UNREGISTERED CUSTOMARY MARRIAGES TO INHERIT INTESTATE ESTATES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>1. Illustrative scenario:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>X was born to parents who had a Chinese customary marriage that was not registered. When X&#8217;s father died intestate, he left behind his parents and cousins. X was told he was illegitimate because his parents&#8217; marriage was not legally registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The key issue is whether a child born to parents in an unregistered Chinese customary marriage under <strong>the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 (\u2018the LRMDA\u2019)<\/strong> can inherit from their father&#8217;s estate under the <strong>Distribution Act 1958 (\u2018the DA\u2019).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. Laws &amp; Legal Principles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The DA 1958 governs the distribution of estates for individuals who die intestate (without a will).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Section 6 of the DA 1958 outlines the order of succession for intestate estates.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The definitions of &#8216;child&#8217; and &#8216;issue&#8217; are provided in Section 3 of the DA 1958: &#8211;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8216;Child&#8217; refers to a legitimate child, and in cases where the deceased was permitted multiple wives, it includes children from all such wives, but not adopted children (except under the Adoption Act 1952).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8216;Issue&#8217; includes children and descendants of deceased children.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The term &#8216;issue&#8217; indicates bloodline descendants, regardless of their legitimacy. Thus, anyone with a genetic or blood connection to the deceased is entitled to inherit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The DA 1958 does not limit inheritance to legitimate children only.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Applying these principles to the scenario, X qualifies as &#8216;issue&#8217; under the DA 1958. Therefore, he is entitled to inherit from his father&#8217;s estate despite any questions of legitimacy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reference Cases:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tan Kah Fatt &amp; Anor v. Tan Ying [2023] 2 MLJ 583<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Born to parents in an unregistered Chinese customary marriage, an individual was deemed illegitimate following their father&#8217;s intestate death. The key legal issue is whether this individual can inherit under the Distribution Act 1958 (DA). The DA does not restrict inheritance to legitimate children only; it includes all bloodline descendants. Therefore, the individual qualifies as &#8216;issue&#8217; and is entitled to inherit their father&#8217;s estate despite questions of legitimacy.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1577,1579],"tags":[1705],"class_list":["post-5048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-law","category-real-estate","tag-family-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048"}],"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=5048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5051,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions\/5051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}