WILLS ACT 1959 (REVISED 1988)
(1) This Act may be cited as the Wills Act 1959 .
(2) This Act shall apply to the States of Peninsular Malaysia only.
(1) In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context-
& quot;property& quot; includes lands, leases, rents and hereditaments corporeal, incorporeal or personal and any individual shares thereof and any estate, right or interest therein or in relation thereto, moneys, shares of Government and other funds, securities for money, charges, debts, choses in action, rights, credits, goods and all other property whatsoever which devolves upon the executor or administrator and any share or interest therein and any contingent, executory or other future interest;
& quot;Peninsular Malaysia& quot; has the meaning assigned thereto in section 3 of the Interpretation Acts 1948 and 1967 [Act 388] , and includes the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur;
&
quot;will&
quot; means a declaration intende
Except as hereinafter provided, every person of sound mind may devise, bequeath or dispose of by his will, executed in manner hereinafter required, all property which he owns or to which he is entitled either at law or in equity at the time of his death notwithstanding that he may have become entitled to the same subsequently to the execution of the will.
No will made by any person under the age of majority shall be valid.
(1) No will shall be valid unless it is in writing and executed in manner hereinafter mentioned.
(2) Every will shall be signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; such signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator as the signature to his will in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and such witnesses shall subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, but no form of attestation shall be necessary:
Provided that every will shall, as far only as regards the position of the signature of the testator, or of the person signing for him as aforesaid, be deemed to be valid under this section if the signature shall be so placed at or after, or following, or under, or beside, or opposite to the end of the will, that it shall be apparent on the face of the will that the testator intended to give effect by such his signature to the writi
(1) No appointment made by will, in exercise of any power, shall be valid, unless the same is executed in manner hereinbefore required.
(2) Every will executed in manner hereinbefore required shall, so far as respects the execution and attestation thereof, be a valid execution of a power of appointment by will, notwithstanding that it shall have been expressly required that a will made in exercise of such power should be executed with some additional or other form of execution or solemnity.
Every will executed in manner hereinbefore required shall be valid without any other publication thereof.
If any person who attests the execution of a will shall at the time of the execution thereof or at any time afterwards be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution thereof, such will shall not on that account be invalid.
If any person attests the execution of any will to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment of or affecting any property, other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt or debts, shall be thereby given or made, such device, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will, or the wife or husband of such person, or any person claiming under such person or wife or husband, be utterly null and void, and such person so attesting shall be admitted as a witness to prove the execution or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof, notwithstanding such devise, legacy, interest, gift of appointment mentioned in such will.
In case by any will any property shall be charged with any debt or debts, and any creditor, or the wife or husband of any creditor, whose debt is so charged, shall attest the execution of such will, such creditor notwithstanding such charge shall be admitted a witness to prove the execution of such will, or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.
No person shall, on account of his being an executor of a will, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution of such will or a witness to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.
Every will made by a man or woman shall be revoked by his or her marriage, except a will made in exercise of a power of appointment, when the property thereby appointed would not in default of such appointment pass to his or her heir, executor or administrator or the person entitled in case of his or her intestacy:
Provided that a will expressed to be made in contemplation of a marriage shall not be revoked by the solemnization of the marriage contemplated; and this proviso shall apply notwithstanding that the marriage contemplated may be the first, second or subsequent marriage of a person lawfully practising polygamy.
No will shall be revoked by any presumption of an intention on the ground of an alteration in circumstances.
No will or any part thereof shall be revoked otherwise than as aforesaid, or by another will executed in manner hereinbefore required, or by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same, and executed in the manner in which a will is hereinbefore required to be executed, or by the burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the same by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his direction, with the intention of revoking the same.
No obliteration, interlineation or other alteration made in any will after the execution thereof shall be valid or have any effect except so far as the words or effect of the will before such alteration shall not be apparent, unless such alteration shall be executed in like manner as hereinbefore is required for the execution of the will; but the will, with such alteration as part thereof, shall be deemed to be duly executed if the signature of the testator and the subscription of the witnesses be made in the margin or on some other part of the will opposite or near to such alteration or at the foot or end of or opposite to a memorandum referring to such alteration and written at the end or some other part of the will.
(1) No will or any part thereof which has been revoked in any manner shall be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof, or by a codicil executed in manner hereinbefore required, and showing an intention to revive the same.
(2) When any will which has been partly revoked, and afterwards wholly revoked, is revived, such revival shall not extend to so much thereof as has been revoked before the revocation of the whole thereof, unless an intention to the contrary be shown.
No transfer, conveyance, assignment or other act made or done subsequently to the execution of a will or codicil of or relating to any property therein comprised, except an act by which such will or codicil shall be revoked as aforesaid, shall prevent the operation of the will or codicil with respect to such estate, right, share or interest in such property as the testator shall have power to dispose of by will at the time of his death.
Every will shall be construed, with reference to the property comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will.
Unless a contrary intention appears by the will, such property as is comprised or intended to be comprised in any devise or bequest in such will contained, which fails or is void by reason of the death of the devisee or legatee in the lifetime of the testator or by reason of such devise or bequest being contrary to law or otherwise incapable of taking effect, shall be included in the residuary devise or bequest respectively, if any, contained in the will.
A general devise or bequest of the estate or property of the testator described in a general manner shall be construed to include any property to which such description shall extend which he may have power to appoint in any manner he may think proper and shall operate as an execution of such power unless a contrary intention shall appear in the will.
Where property is devised or bequeathed to any person without any words of limitation, such devise or bequest shall be construed to pass the fee simple or other the right to the whole estate or interest in such property which the testator had power to dispose of by will unless it appears by the will that only a restricted interest was intended for such devisee or legatee.
In any devise or bequest of property the words & quot;die without issue& quot; or & quot;die without leaving issue& quot;, or any other words which may import either a want or failure of issue of any person in his lifetime or at the time of his death, or an indefinite failure of his issue, shall be construed to mean a want or failure of issue in the lifetime or at the time of the death of such person, and not an indefinite failure of his issue, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will:
Provided that this section shall not extend to cases where such words as aforesaid import if no issue described in a preceding gift shall be born, or if there shall be no issue who shall live to attain the age or otherwise answer the description required for obtaining a vested estate by a preceding gift to such issue.
Where any property shall be devised or bequeathed to any trustee or executor, such devise or bequest shall be construed to pass the fee simple or other the right to the whole estate or interest in such property which the testator had power to dispose of by will unless a lesser interest in such property shall thereby be given to him expressly or by implication.
Where any property shall be devised or bequeathed to a trustee, without any express limitation of the estate to be taken by such trustee, and the beneficial interest in such property, or in the surplus rents and profits thereof, shall not be given to any person for life, or such beneficial interest shall be given to any person for life, but the purposes of the trust may continue beyond the life of such person, such devise or bequest shall be construed to vest in or pass to such trustee the fee simple, or other the right to the whole legal estate or interest in such property which the testator had power to dispose of by will, and not an estate determinable when the purposes of the trust shall be satisfied.
Where any person, being a child or other issue of the testator, to whom any property shall be devised or bequeathed for any estate or interest not determinable at or before the death of such person shall die in the lifetime of the testator leaving issue, and any such issue of such person shall be living at the time of the death of the testator, such devise or bequest shall not lapse, but shall take effect as if the death of such person had happened immediately after the death of the testator, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will.
(1) A member of the armed forces of Malaysia being in actual military service, and a mariner or seaman (including a member of the naval forces of Malaysia) being at sea may dispose of his property or of the guardianship, custody and tuition of a child or may exercise a power of appointment exercisable by will by a privileged will.
(2) For the purposes of this section a privileged will means any declaration or disposition, oral or in writing, made by or at the directions of the testator which manifests the intentions of the testator which he desires to be carried or to the guardianship, custody and tuition of a child or to the exercise of a power of appointment.
(3) A declaration may be a valid privileged will notwithstanding that it was not executed in the manner appearing to have been intended by the testator or that it was intended by the testator subsequently to execute a formal will to give effect to his testamentary dispositions, u
A will executed outside Malaysia in the manner required by-
(a) this Act;
(b) the law of the place where it was executed;
(c) the law of the testator& apos;s domicile at the time of its execution; or
(d) the law of the testator& apos;s domicile at the time of his death,
shall be deemed to be will executed for the purpose of being admitted to probate in Malaysia, provided that such will is in writing or is a privileged will made under section 26.
A will executed within Malaysia by a citizen (whatever may be the domicile of such person at the time of making the same or at the time of his death) shall as regards movable property and immovable property situate in Malaysia be deemed to be a will executed for the purpose of being admitted to probate in Malaysia if it is executed in the manner required by this Act.
No will shall be held to be revoked or to have become invalid in point of form nor shall the construction thereof be altered by reason only of any subsequent change of domicile of the person making the same.
(1) A will made in any of the States of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan or Pahang before the coming into force of this Act and a will made in either of the States of Penang and Malacca shall, if such will would immediately before the commencement of this Act have been construed in accordance with the Wills Enactment 1938 [F.M.S. 5 of 1938] , of the Federated Malay States or the Wills Ordinance of the Straits Settlements [S.S. Cap. 53] respectively, continue to be construed in accordance with such provisions, notwithstanding any repeal of that Enactment or Ordinance.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) a will re-executed, republished or revived by a codicil shall be deemed to have been made at the time when it was so re-executed, re-published or revived.
(3) Save as provided by subsection (1) and subject to this Act, section 100 of the Evidence Act 1950 [Act 56] shall apply to the construction of all wills r
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