1. Illustrative scenario:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
X was born to parents who had a Chinese customary marriage that was not registered. When X’s father died intestate, he left behind his parents and cousins. X was told he was illegitimate because his parents’ marriage was not legally registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key issue is whether a child born to parents in an unregistered Chinese customary marriage under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 (\u2018the LRMDA\u2019)<\/strong> can inherit from their father’s estate under the Distribution Act 1958 (\u2018the DA\u2019).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Laws & Legal Principles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reference Cases:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tan Kah Fatt & Anor v. Tan Ying [2023] 2 MLJ 583<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Born to parents in an unregistered Chinese customary marriage, an individual was deemed illegitimate following their father’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 ‘issue’ and is entitled to inherit their father’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"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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