Genting group granddaughters who got S$291,114 & S$32,346 from mum's S$517 million estate, bid to strike out testimony dismissed

Malaysia's High Court has dismissed an application by the granddaughters of the Genting Group founders to expunge parts of a witness testimony from their mother's lawyer on Mar. 3.

Their mother, Lim Siew Kim, who died of cancer aged 73 on Jul. 14, 2022, was the third child of Genting Group's founder, reported The Star.

Lim leaves behind three daughters and a son.

The legal battle over the nullification of Lim's will concerns her RM1.6 billion (S$517 million) estate.

The plaintiffs, two of her daughters, seek a declaration that the wills executed by Lim on Nov. 2, 2021, Apr. 11, 2022, and Apr. 24, 2022, are null and void.

They also sought a declaration that their mother died intestate, which refers to a person who died without a valid will.

Dismissed Bid

Two of her daughters, who were purportedly bequeathed RM10million (S$3.2 million) each and had their portions reduced, reported The Star.

Chan T'shiao Li, 48, was given RM900,000 (S$291,114) and Kimberley Chan T'shiao Min, 45, had her bequest reduced to RM100,000 (S$32,346).

Lawyer Low Beng Choo, who drafted Lim’s final will in 2022, said she had acted in 2021 on Lim’s alleged instructions to reduce the cash bequests to her two daughters.

On Feb. 23, 2023, Low testified that Lim had signed her final will on Apr. 28, 2022.

The Chan sisters’ lawyer, Datuk V. Sithambaram, sought to expunge from Low’s witness statement her account of how those 2021 will markings came about.

Ruling

Malaysian Judge Mahazan Mat Taib emphasised that the ruling only addresses the threshold issue of admissibility.

The threshold issue of admissibility is a preliminary legal question of whether a piece of evidence can be allowed into the trial record at all, before the court evaluates whether the evidence is true, reliable, or persuasive.

"The court's refusal to exclude the evidence does not amount to any acceptance of its truth, nor does it constitute any finding on the merits; all issues relating to credibility, reliability and probative value remain open for determination at the conclusion of the trial."

Mahazan said the court found that the bulk of the evidence presented did not constitute hearsay under the law, reported The Star.

Mahazan also noted that the hearsay rule does not operate to exclude evidence of the testimony given by the Low, the solicitor who received Lim's instructions and acted upon them.

"Any genuinely objectionable third-party assertion may be addressed specifically and in context. However, the bulk of the impugned evidence ought not to be excluded at this stage."

The court also ordered both Chan sisters to pay RM20,000 (S$6,466) to the defendants in the dismissal.

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