JUDGMENT

Gopal Sri Ram JCA:

This case concerns a simple issue of statutory construction. The High Court had dealt with it so admirably that we found it unnecessary to call upon the respondent to answer the appellant's submissions. The factual matrix against which this appeal rests is as follows.

On 19 November 1995, the respondent underwent a ceremony of a Chinese customary marriage with her late husband Lau Yen Yoon ("the deceased"). Later, the deceased died in an accident leaving behind some assets which, by the law of intestate succession, ought to go to the respondent as his widow. But the deceased's mother intervened. She said that there was no customary marriage ceremony. She said that even if there was a customary marriage it was void because it was not registered. This led the respondent to take out an originating summons in which she claimed a declaration and some ancillary relief. So, the judge had to deal with two questions: one of fact and the other of law. He resolved both in the respondent's favour and granted her the declaration she sought.

So far as the ceremony is concerned, the respondent in her affidavit describes the more detailed aspects of the rites observed a