JUDGMENT

Abdul Aziz Mohamad JCA:

[1] Dato' Sharibun bin Wahab ("the deceased") died on 2 January 2000, leaving various properties, movable and immovable, as his assets. In his lifetime the deceased had married three women. The first was Puan Ramlah binti Haji Umar, who bore him a daughter, Zation, and whom he divorced in 1953. In 1956 he married Puan Buruk binti Abdullah, who bore him five daughters, Rosmawati, Roslinawati, Rosilawati, Roshayati and Rosnita. In 1981, while married to Puan Buruk, he married Puan Latifah binti Mat Zin, the appellant, who bore him a daughter, Noor Hafisah, and a son, Muhammad Hidayat, who was born on 21 March 1985 and was therefore a minor when the deceased died. Puan Buruk died on 17 March 1998. The beneficiaries of the deceased's estate are therefore the appellant, being his surviving spouse, and his eight children, one by Puan Ramlah, five by Puan Buruk and two by the appellant.

[2] During Puan Buruk's lifetime, the deceased maintained several accounts of various types jointly with her at the Standard Chartered Bank, Jalan &ang, Kuala Lumpur ("the SCB"). Shortly after Puan Buruk's death, the deceased, on 29 March 1998, opened a joint current account with the appellant at the Bumiputra Commerce Bank's branch in Taman Sri Serdang, Sri Kembangan, Selangor ("the BCB"). We shall refer to this as "the BCB joint account". And on 9 April 1998 he converted the joint accounts with Puan Buruk at the Standard Chartered Bank to joint accounts with the appellant. We shall refer to these joint accounts as "the SCB joint accounts". We shall refer to the BCB joint account and the SCB joint accounts together as "the joint accounts".

[3] For the opening of the BCB joint account, the deceased and the appellant signed a set of terms and conditions which constituted an agreement between them and the bank. By para. 11.5 of the terms and conditions the deceased and the appellant agreed that in the event of the death of either, "any balance remaining in the credit of our joint account may be paid to the survivor". For the conversion of the SCB joint accounts, the deceased signed, and the appellant also signed as concurring with, a letter of request to the bank, in the bank's standard form, containing certain terms. By para. 5 of the terms, the deceased and the appellant authorized the bank,inter alia , "To hold on the death of either ... of us any credit balance(s) in our joint names ... to the order of the survivor ...". We shall refer to those provisions of para. 11.5 and para. 5 as "the survivorship mandate". By the terms of both documents the banks were authorized to make payments from the accounts on the instructions of either the deceased or the appellant although the sums that went into the accounts from time to time all came from the deceased.

[4] After the death of the deceased on 2 January 2000, the appellant made four withdrawals in the same month of January from the BCB joint account, totalling RM928,800, leaving a balance of RM122.33. On 29 February 2000 the SCB joint accounts stood at a total of RM2,782,136.60.

[5] On 8 March 2000 Rosmawati, Puan Buruk's daughter, filed a petition for letters of administration to the deceased's estate, in which she included the joint accounts among the assets of the estate of the deceased, and did not include the appellant and her two children among the beneficiaries of the estate.

[6] On 5 April 2000 the appellant entered a caveat in the deceased's estate.

[7] On 28 February 2001, on the application of Rosmawati the petitioner, it was ordered that Roslinawati, another daughter of Puan Buruk's, be made a joint petitioner and that the appellant and her two children be included in the list of the beneficiaries. Rosmawati and Roslinawati thus became joint petitioners. They are the respondents in this appeal.

[8] Following the entry of the appellant's caveat, the dispute that ultimately had to be decided by the High Court on the respondents' petition was a dispute over the moneys in