Ali J:

In this notice of motion, which was filed on 17 August 1964 the defendant, who had entered conditional appearance to the writ, applies to strike out the writ of summons on the ground that the action brought against him as administrator was incompetent.

It was common ground that in Petition No. 182 of 1961 the defendant applied for the grant of administration and on 18 October 1961 obtained an order for the grant of administration to him of the estate of Yan Koon Wing, deceased. But up to the date of the writ he had not extracted letters of administration. It is the defence contention that the defendant is not the administrator of the estate until he has been issued with letters of administration. This raises the question whether the order granting him administration dated 18 October 1961 was sufficient to render the action by the plaintiff incompetent. The law on this point, in my view, is beyond doubt. In every petition for administration the only order made by the Court is for the grant of administration. The Court does not appoint an administrator but in effect directs that letters of administration be issued to him. A similar question arose in Chia Teck Liang v