{"id":5449,"date":"2024-08-21T19:27:41","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T11:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/?p=5449"},"modified":"2024-09-09T09:11:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:11:31","slug":"land-law-trust-when-time-and-trust-run-out-property-ownership-disputes-and-the-doctrine-of-laches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/land-law-trust-when-time-and-trust-run-out-property-ownership-disputes-and-the-doctrine-of-laches\/","title":{"rendered":"LAND LAW &#8211; TRUST \u2013 WHEN TIME AND TRUST RUN OUT \u2013 PROPERTY OWNERSHIP DISPUTES AND THE DOCTRINE OF LACHES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Illustrative Scenario<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>X and Y are siblings. In 1980, their father started a sundry shop business and used the earnings to purchase a piece of land, which was registered in their mother&#8217;s name for plantation purposes. X worked at the sundry shop for six years without receiving any salary. As a result, the mother transferred the property to X in 1990. Despite owning the land, X chose to share the plantation income equally with Y, as times were tough and he did not want to deprive his sibling of this income. X alone covered all the quit rent and other expenses related to the land. Both parents passed away in 2000 without leaving a will. In 2013, Y initiated legal action against X, seeking a declaration that X holds the land in trust for both siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The core issue is whether Y can successfully claim that X holds the land on trust for both of them, meaning the land should not belong to X alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Legal Principles &amp; Laws<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Section 344 of the National Land Code (NLC)<\/strong>: Mandates that any trust must be recorded in the memorial of registration to be recognized.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Three Certainties of Trust<\/strong>: For a trust to be legally valid, it must satisfy three certainties: certainty of words, certainty of subject, and certainty of object.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Trust and Land Title<\/strong>: If a land title does not explicitly state that a trust exists, with the trustee&#8217;s name mentioned, the registered owner on the title holds the land absolutely, without any obligation to another party not named on the title.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Doctrine of Laches<\/strong>: If there is an unreasonable delay in asserting a claim or interest over a property, the court may conclude that the doctrine of laches applies, thereby defeating the claim.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Application to the Scenario<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In this scenario, there is no mention in the memorial of registration that X holds the land in trust for the siblings. Additionally, there is no written document or trust deed indicating the existence of a trust. Consequently, the court is likely to rule that X does not hold the land on behalf of the siblings. Moreover, the significant delay of over 10 years by Y in asserting his claim further strengthens the likelihood that the court will dismiss Y\u2019s claim based on the doctrine of laches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reference Cases<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Low Tin Yong @ Low Yong Lian v. Low Yong Thuan [2016] 3 MLJ 351<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alfred Templeton &amp; Ors v. Low Yat Holdings Sdn Bhd &amp; Anor [1989] 2 MLJ 202; [1989] 1 CLJ Rep 219<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illustrative Scenario X and Y are siblings. In 1980, their father started a sundry shop business and used the earnings to purchase a piece of land, which was registered in their mother&#8217;s name for plantation purposes. X worked at the sundry shop for six years without receiving any salary. As a result, the mother transferred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3574],"tags":[3573],"class_list":["post-5449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-land-law","tag-land-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5451,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions\/5451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}