MA NHIN BWIN Vs. U. SHWE GONE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from a judgment and decree of the Chief Court of Lower Burma. The judgment is dated the 14th June, 1910, and it reverses a decree of the same Court in its Original Civil Jurisdiction, dated the 16th February 1909. The appeal is also from an order dated the 2nd September 1910 which rejected the appellant's application for a review of the decree first mentioned.

(2.) THE question to be afterwards dealt with is one of wide-spread importance, affecting the rights of succession in Burma. It is, however, necessary to state the circumstances, which are few and plain, in such a way as to show the limits of the decision which is about to be pronounced. These will appear as the narrative proceeds.

(3.) THESE three sisters lived together apart from their father. They traded in cocoanuts in the Municipal Bazaar at Rangoon. This state of matters lasted for many years, and one of the outstanding facts in the case is the complete separation of these ladies from their father, who had married again. They were, in fact, independent traders. In later years their business appears to have been of considerable importance. One part of it, for instance, mentioned in the proceedings, is three cargoes of Nicobar nuts, of which one of the ladies was consignee, and the combined value of which amounted to a large sum. In the year 1899, the three sisters bought a house in Rangoon with money derived from the profits of their trading, and they thereafter always lived there together. What were the exact relations in the eye of the law as between these three ladies need not be determined in this case. Whether they were all, or any two of them, in full partnership or in joint adventure with each other does not require to be decided in view of the events of death which happened, and of the opinion on the legal point of succession which is afterwards to be announced.