U PO LEIN Vs. MA HUIN HLAING

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole question for the decision of their Lordships on this appeal is whether the respondent is the keittima daughter of U San Ywe, a Burmese Buddhist, and his wife, Daw Hnit. If she was, then she inherits Daw Hnit's estate; if not, the appellant U Po Lein, who is the brother of Daw Hnit, is entitled to succeed to it as her heir.

(2.) The litigation arose out of a petition for letters of administration to the estate of Daw Unit presented by the appellant to the Court of the District Judge of Pegn on 27 September 1924. The respondent filed a caveat, and on 3 December 1924 she made a counter petition for letters of administration against which a caveat was entered by the appellant. The proceedings then took the form of a suit with the respondent as plaintiff and the appellant as defendant, and the case was by consent of parties heard as a regular suit for the determination of the question of succession to the estate of Daw Hnit. The District Judge found that the adoption was not proved, and directed letters of administration to be granted to the appellant. On appeal the High Court at Rangoon found that the respondent had proved the adoption, and they ordered letters of all ministration to issue to the respondent. From this decree of the High Court the present appeal has been brought.

(3.) U San Ywe and Daw Hnit were residents of Yitkangyi in the Pega District, and they ware well known as the richest persons in the place. They took into their family several poor children and maintained and helped them in life. At the date of the alleged adoption they had an only son named Tun Hmyin, who died about the year 1908. U San Ywe died in 1911, and Daw Hnit on 29 April 1924. The respondent's natural father was a hawker, and during the rains of 1903, while he was crossing a river with his family, the boat was capsized, and his wife and one child were drowned. The respondent, who with her father survived, was then about six months old and her case is that a few weeks after this incident she was adapted by U San Ywa and Daw Hnit as their keittima daughter, and was brought up by them and lived continuously with them until the death of Daw Hnit in 1924, except for a short interval in 1919, when being then about 16 years old, she eloped with Maung Tun Pe, a disciple of U Wimala, the head of a monastery at Yitkangyi, and married him at Thaton. The couple after living there together for about four or six months were brought back to Daw Hnit by U Win, a village headman, and were received back by her in her house. While the respondent was living with Daw Hnit two children were born to her, and she, with her husband and children, lived with Daw Hnit in her house until her death. On 4 September, 1922 Daw Hnit executed a dead confirming the adoption, and at the same time she executed a power-of-attorney in favour of Tun Pe, empowering him to manage her estate and affairs, which he did until her death.