Thomson LP:

This is an appeal in an action of which the subject matter is three pieces of land amounting to a little over 1,000 acres comprised in Johore Land Grants Nos 17,993, 17,934 and 17,935 which I shall call the oil palm land.

The plaintiff is the second wife of one Quah Hong Chiam. The defendants are her step son, the son of Quah Hong Chiam by his first wife Lim Phen, and her own son by Quah Hong Chiam and they are the registered proprietors of the land in question.

The plaintiff claimed that the defendants held this land as trustees for her and are not the beneficial owners and she asked for a declaration to that effect and for consequential relief. As originally pleaded the defence was a denial of the plaintiff's claim but at the commencement of the trial, some eighteen months after the issue of the writ, this was amended to include averments that the land was given to the defendants by the plaintiffs husband either for himself or with the knowledge and consent of the plaintiff. Alternatively if it was given to them in trust this was done with a view to fraudulent avoidance of the law relating to death duty and income tax.

In the event Azmi J gave judgment for the plaintiff as prayed and against that judgement the defendants have now appealed.

The story is a confused one and none the easier to elucidate because the witnesses are speaking of events that occurred some twenty-five years ago and that one Yew Hun Eng who would have been probably the most important witness died some twenty years ago. Certain facts, however, are admitted and others are no longer in controversy.

Some time prior to 1932, and certainly from as early as 1917, the plaintiff's husband, Quah Hong Chiam, who like herself is now over eighty, was carrying on business in the timber trade and acquiring interests in land in the State of Johore. He was also, it would appear, carrying on some sort of business in Singapore which was at that time part of the Colony of the Straits Settlements.

In 1932 he became bankrupt, receiving and adjudication orders being made by the High Court of the Straits Settlements on 25 November 1932.

We are not concerned with Quah Hong Chiam's business in Singapore, but after the bankruptcy his timber business in Johore was carried on by the plaintiff and one Yew Hun Eng, who was her brother and the administrator of the estate of her deceased father, under the name of the Johore Lumbering Co. The principal business would appear to have been felling and selling timber growing on the oil palm land in respect of which prior to his bankruptcy Quah Hong Chiam had some sort of occupation rights.

On 2 January 1934, Yew Hun Eng borrowed $10,000 from a bank in Penang giving by way of security a mortgage on some houses in Penang the property of the estate of the plaintiff's deceased father, and this money was used for the purposes of the Johore Lumbering Co. and on 29 April 1935, he borrowed a further sum of $3,000 on the same security which was used for the same purposes. These loans were ultimately repaid in full out of the funds of the company. Then on 24 August 1935, Yew Hun Eng entered into an agreement with the Official Assignee in the Straits Settlements who granted him an irrevocable power of attorney. This agreement is not in evidence but it would appear to have been an agreement for the sale of the oil palm land which at that time was still State land.

Then on 1 October 1937, Quah Hong Chiam was granted his discharge in bankruptcy suspended for a year and on 17 October 1937, Grants of the oil palm land in his name were obtained from the State of Johore. The total consideration as expressed in the Grants was $3,055 and I think we are entitled from our own knowledge of the local land laws to say that this money must have been paid to the State by somebody and that there could have been no question of a notional consideration being expressed for the assessment of stamp duty. The quit rents for the first year amoun