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