Many spouses in Malaysia who undergo divorce proceedings may have asked for division of matrimonial assets. However, most of the time, a party who wishes to claim the matrimonial assets does nothing to prevent them from being dissipated, especially when they do not have control over them but the spouse.
In a situation whereby a matrimonial asset is in the complete control of a spouse, it is very convenient for that spouse to give away, transfer, conceal, mismanaged, convey or otherwise adversely affect the asset against the advantage of the other spouse.
This is the situation for one of our clients, who held no legal title to any of the matrimonial assets. The decades of marriage has come to an end, and matrimonial assets division is inevitable. The husband has been working around with his assets in attempting to diminish the total value of our client's claim. We proceeded to obtain an order to detain and preserve the matrimonial assets, including lands and buildings. Admittedly, a Judge is usually cautious in exercising power to detain or preserve any property.
There are many factors a Judge would look into, to name a few, as follow;
whether there is any real risk of dissipation;
to weigh whether the balance of convenience lies in favour of the applicant; or
whether damages would be an adequate remedy.
The Judge has ruled in our favour to detained and preserved the matrimonial assets which are approximately worth more than RM60 million in value. The Order has disrupted his dissipation plan, and these assets have now caught the attention of the Judge. Hence, any dealings with the assets which have been preserved would be tantamount to an act of committal.
If such assets were not detained or preserved, our client's husband would have in many ways dissipated them, or even sold it at a meager price to a bona fide purchaser in which such action and conduct is against our client's benefit and entitlement. As such, there is a need to prevent such injustice against our client.
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