Thomson LP:

This appeal raises once again the question, which has agitated our Courts for over a century, of the succession rights of the female relicts and children of a deceased man of Chinese race domiciled in this country.

One Ding Do Ca died intestate in Perak on 7 March 1949. He was survived by a woman Wong Swee Kiew who is admitted to have been his first wife and who claim's to have been his only lawful wife and by two daughters born in wedlock of whom the deceased was the father and Mdm Wong the mother. He was also survived by a woman Ngoi Sui Ing with whom he had lived for many years in a connubial relationship and who claims to have been his secondary wife and by a son and a daughter of whom Mdm Ngoi is the mother and the deceased the father. All the Parties are Chinese, they have been at all times domiciled in the State of Perak and so much of the estate as consisted of immovable property is situated in Perak.

On 11 November 1950, Mdm Wong filed a Petition for letters of administration to the estate of the deceased in which she stated that the next-of-kin of the deceased were herself and her two daughters. Letters of administration were granted to her on 12 Ap