The court established that EPF savings are matrimonial assets to be shared at divorce, emphasizing spouses' contributions towards family welfare irrespective of direct financial inputs.

JUDGMENT

Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin JC:

[1] Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and in this case the woman was the Respondent Wife ("RW") who defended the action of the Petitioner Husband ("PH") in this divorce petition. The Court granted the divorce but made a series of orders against him, amongst others, to pay maintenance to their children, and half of the proceeds of the matrimonial home and half of his EPF savings to be given to the RW. The PH filed an appeal against this Court's decision on 2 August 2022 in respect of the petition for divorce dated 26 July 2021 (Enclosure 1). The orders were made after hearing the oral submissions of the parties on 6 July 2022. Having adjourned the matter and deliberated the cause papers, submissions and authorities cited during the hearing, the Court was not swayed by the Counsel for the PH's submissions. The Court now gives its reasons for making the orders.

Background of the case

[2] The Cause Papers in this application were as follows:

i. Petition for Divorce dated 26 July 2021 (Enclosure 1);

ii. PH's Affidavit in Support dated 26 July 2021 (Enclosure 2);

iii. Affidavit in Support of the Petition dated 26 July 2021 (Enclosure 3);

iv. Pernyataan Anak-Anak dated 26 July 2021 (Enclosure 5);

v. RW's Reply to the Petition dated 5 October 2021 (Enclosure 10);

vi. PH's Reply to the RW's Reply dated 23 December 2021 (Enclosure 13);

vii. RW's Reply to the PH's Reply dated 18 January 2022 (Enclosure 14).

[3] The case was fixed for trial on 20 April 2022 and witness statements had been filed but the Court was informed that the parties were going to discuss on a proposed settlement as both wanted to divorce but there were some issues to be resolved first. The date was vacated upon the parties' request. On 19 May 2022, the Court was appraised on the progress of the discussion whereby 3 issues remained outstanding as follows:

3.1 the value of the marital home as no proper valuation had been done and how much of the share of the proceedswere to be given to the RW;

3.2 the EPF contribution in the PH's account whereby it was proposed that the RW be given 50% of the PH's EPF savings; and the third issue, ie maintenance and education fund for the children.

3.3 the third issue, ie maintenance and education fund for the children.

[4] Counsel for the RW submitted that if the parties could agree on the percentage of the EPF savings that would be given to RW, it would be unneccesary to submit on the third issue. The parties then requested for a hearing date to submit on the remaining issues. The hearing date was fixed on 6 July 2022 accordingly and submissions were heard as scheduled. During the hearing the Court was referred to some documents in the Common Bundies of Document (CBOD, encl 15) and the RW's Bundle of Documents (Enclosure 25).

The Hearing

[5] The written submissions of the parties were in encls 26 (PH), 27 (RW), 29 (PH) and 31 (RW). The background facts are gathered from the pleaded case in the affidavits filed by the parties in this suit. The PH and RW married on 9 November 1992 in Kuala Kangsar. There have 3 children from the marriage; presently the first daughter is 24 years' old, the second daughter is 20 years' old and the third daughter will reach 18 years of age at the end of October. They both agreed that ever since they married, both of them were not on the same wave length in ail aspects of the marriage and this had caused problems to them. The RW then left the matrimonial home in May 2009 taking along their children who were then aged 11,7 and 5 because she alleged that the marriage had irretrievably broken down due to the PH's behaviour which the RW could not reasonably be expected to live with (refer to paras 5(a) - (r) of encl 10), namely his extra-marital affairs, and harassment and abuse of RW.

[6] The first time RW found out about his extra-marital affair was in 2008 and later she realised that the reason PH gave for spending most of the nights away from home, allegedly due to his scrap metal bus