Let’s not speculate about whether the signature on the document was forged or not. For all you know, it might have been perfectly executed. But on the other hand, it could have indeed been a forgery.
At the centre of this legal dispute in Muar, Johor, was whether a signed marriage certificate was valid or not. The High Court there said that the document was invalid because of a questionable signature. And because of that, there were repercussions.
But the real moral of this story is that you don’t have to be a millionaire before you get your Will written.
What happened was that this woman, Kuan Siew Yen, had filed a claim to the estate of Tan Chin Shing at the High Court. Tan was 43 years old when he died in 2005 without having written a Will, and Kuan had wanted to prevent his elder brother from administering the estate of the deceased.
She claimed to have been married to the deceased and had submitted a marriage certificate purportedly issued through an assistant registrar at the Muar Chinese Chambers of Commerce.
However, the judge hearing the civil suit rejected Kuan’s application as the marriage was false. According to the judge, the marriage could not be legal as the signature of the assistant registrar differed on the marriage certificate and Kuan was unable to produce her two witnesses to her marriage.
The judge also allowed Tan’s elder brother’s counter suit to declare Kuan as not being the deceased’s legal wife and thus, could not stake a claim to the estate.
The news report as it appeared in The Star newspaper appears below.
