Specific Relief Act 1950 · Updated to 1 Jan 2006 · Chapter VI · Declaratory Decrees
41. Discretion of court as to declaration of status or right
Feedback & supportAny person entitled to any legal character, or to any right as to any property, may institute a suit against any person denying, or interested to deny, his title to the character or right, and the court may in its discretion make therein a declaration that he is so entitled, and the plaintiff need not in that suit ask for any further relief:
Provided that no court shall make any such declaration where the plaintiff, being able to seek further relief than a mere declaration or title, omits to do so.
Explanation—A trustee of property is a “person interested to deny” a title adverse to the title of someone who is not in existence, and for whom, if in existence, he would be a trustee.
trustee
“trustee” includes every person holding, expressly, by implication or constructively, a fiduciary character. (a) Z bequeaths land to A, “not doubting that he will pay thereout an annuity of RM1,000 to B for his life”. A accepts the bequest. A is a trustee, within the meaning of this Act, for B, to the extent of the annuity. (b) A is the legal, medical, or spiritual adviser of B. By availing himself of his situation as such adviser, A gains some pecuniary advantage which might otherwise have accrued to B. A is a trustee for B, within the meaning of this Act, of the advantage. (c) A, being B’s banker, discloses, for his own purpose, the state of B’s account. A is a trustee, within the meaning of this Act, for B, of the benefit gained by him by means of the disclosure. (d) A, one of several partners, is employed to purchase goods for the firm. A, unknown to his co-partners, supplies them, at the market-price, with goods previously bought by himself when the price was lower, and thus makes a considerable profit. A is a trustee, for his co-partners, within the meaning of this Act, of the profit so made. (e) A, the manager of B’s indigo-factory, becomes agent for C, a vendor of indigo-seed, and receives, without B’s assent, commission on the seed purchased from C for the factory. A is a trustee, within the meaning of this Act, for B, of the commission so received.
A bequeaths his property to B, C and D, “to be equally divided amongst all and each of them, if living at the time of my death, then amongst their surviving children”. No such children are in existence. In a suit against
A’s executor, the court may declare whether B, C and D took the property absolutely, or only for their lives, and it may also declare the interests of the children before their rights are vested.
A covenants that, if he should at any time be entitled to property exceeding RM100,000, he will settle it upon certain trusts. Before any such property accrues, or any persons entitled under the trusts are ascertained, he institutes a suit to obtain a declaration that the covenant is void for uncertainty.
The court may make the declaration.
A is in possession of certain property. B, alleging that he is the owner of the property, requires A to deliver it to him. A may obtain a declaration of his right to hold the property.
32
A bequeaths property to B for his life, with remainder to B’s wife and her children, if any, by B, but, if B die without any wife or children to C,
B has a putative wife, D, and children, but C denies that B and D were ever lawfully married; D and her children may, in B’s lifetime, institute a suit against C and obtain therein a declaration that they are truly the wife and children of B.