Decision Tomorrow On Bid To Remove Lawyer’s Testimony In Goh Tong Will Case

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 (Bernama) -- The High Court here today fixed tomorrow to deliver its decision on an application by the grandchildren of the late tycoon Lim Goh Tong to expunge portions of the witness statement of lawyer Datuk Low Beng Choo, who drafted their mother’s last will in 2022.

Judge Mahazan Mat Taib set the date after hearing lengthy submissions from counsel Datuk V. Sithambaram, representing Lim Siew Kim’s daughters, Chan T’shiao Li, 48, and Kimberley Chan T’shiao Miin, 45.

Also making submissions were counsel Rishwant Singh, appearing for Malcolm Fernandez as executor and trustee; counsel Ong Kheng Leong representing another executor and trustee Chan Mei Yee; counsel Datuk K. Kirubakaran representing Siew Kim’s son, Marcus Chan Jau Chwen and counsel S. Sivaneindran who appeared for Low.

Among the portions of Low’s witness statement that Sithambaram sought to expunge were those relating to how certain markings in a 2021 will came about, allegedly on Siew Kim’s instructions that she wished to reduce the cash bequests to each of her two daughters.

The bequests were purportedly reduced from RM10 million to RM900,000 for T’shiao Li and from RM10 million to RM100,000 for T’shiao Miin.

Earlier, Rishwant submitted that the application raised by the plaintiff’s counsel was premature.

He said Low had given comprehensive testimony regarding the preparation of the will in accordance with the deceased’s instructions.

“This constitutes direct evidence and ought to be admitted by this court,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sivaneindran said his client had come to court to testify on the instructions he received from the deceased, adding that the evidence given by Low was not hearsay.

However, Sithambaram submitted that what the deceased had told her solicitor amounted to hearsay and was “illogical” and untenable.

He also questioned if the instructions were truly from the deceased. 

“Does this court know? Do they (lawyers) know? Do I know? Nobody knows. That is why it is called hearsay. Can we check the truth of it? Certainly not. The truth of these instructions cannot be established as the maker is dead,” he said.

On Feb 23, Low when giving testimony confirmed that Siew Kim had signed her final will on 28 April 2022.

Siew Kim, the third child of Lim Goh Tong, passed away from cancer in July 2022 at the age of 73, leaving behind three daughters and a son.

In the suit, the plaintiffs seek a declaration the last Will purportedly executed by the deceased on April 24, 2022 and the first Will and second Will purportedly executed by the deceased, respectively on Nov 2, 2021 and April 11, 2022 are null and void.

The plaintiffs also seek a declaration that their mother had died intestate.

-- BERNAMA