TUTORIAL 3

EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE
THE MARRIED WOMEN’S ACT, 1957

1. How would you define “marriage”?

- Hyde v Hyde
- Voluntary union between a man and a woman for life to the exclusion of others
- Malaysia – common law marriages – 2 persons cohabiting for a considerable length of
time accompanied by the repute and the presumption of marriage, although the initial
marriage ceremony was not complete and might have been defective.
- Carolis De Silva v Tim Kim – R was a Straits-born Chinese. Carolis – Sinhalese.
Respondent accompanied Carolis to the temple – lit joss papers and candles and
declared that they would be man and wife. After ceremony, couple lived together, had a
child who was registered as Carolis’ child. Court held that the marriage was valid and
lawful bc the law also will presume a contract of marriage from evidence of cohabitation
with the habit and repute of matrimony without any or with imperfect formalities for its
commencement.

2. What are the effects of marriage on the parties to the marriage?

3. Explain how the status of married women has been changed by the Married Women’s
Act, 1957.

4. Sally and Robert have been married for two years and have frequent quarrels. During
one of these quarrels, Robert told Sally that all the jewellery and share certificates that
she has are his although the jewellery is in her keeping and the share certificates are
issued in her name. Sally retorted that they are hers and will remain hers.

Finally, one day, Robert stormed out of the house bringing with him all the jewellery and
share certificates he could find in the drawers in their bedroom. Sally is upset and
wishes to take legal action against Robert for recovery of the jewellery and share
certificates and to punish him.

She seeks your advice. How would you advise her? Would it make any difference to
your answer if all parties were Muslims?

5. When Leela married Mohan, Leela’s father gave her a house as part of her dowry.
Mohan had asked Leela to transfer the house to him so that he could use it as security
for loans taken by him for his business. Leela has just found out that Mohan has a
mistress on whom he is spending a lot of money. She is worried that she may lose her
house and wants to know if she can get it back from Mohan. What would you advise her
to do?