- Marriage is a wonderful institution and may seem a blissful dream for those who have learnt to live and share their lives for better or worse with a spouse. However, it may also turn out, for several reasons, to be a nightmare from hell for the less fortunate who simply cannot adjust to live with a partner.
- It is usually the case during the strain or the breakdown of marriage, spouses tend to treat each other with great contempt. It is never easy to severe marital relationships and still maintain a level of civility towards your spouse who is now in your eyes, a cancerous growth that you need to remove from your life.
- Matters are made even worse when there are properties to be divided and custody of children of the marriage to be determined by the courts. The toxicity within the relationship sometime leads spouses to say and do things which go beyond the limits of the law.
- This article seeks to answer the question whether spouses can sue each other for defamation. It seems an easy enough question that can simply be answered by a “yes” or “no” answer by referring to the law. However, the law in Malaysia is somewhat silent on the issue and we thought that it would be prudent for anyone considering going down this path, to have the benefit of our views on the subject.
- Prior to 1957 the legal position in Malaysia was that spouses were not allowed to sue each other for any kind of tort including defamation. The rationale behind this position was that husband and wife were seen by the law as one person and the legal being or legal existence of the women is suspended during the marriage or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband under whose wing, protection and cover she performs everything.
- With the enactment of the Married Women Act 1957 in Malaysia, the restrictive doctrine of legal unity of husband and wife was relaxed. Upon the coming into force of the Married Women Act, the law had evolved to allow spouses to sue each other under the following circumstances:-
- To sue each other in tort for the protection or security of his or her property;
- To sue each other in tort for damages in respect of injuries to his or her person.
- While it cannot be denied that the law has evolved to an extent to grant spouses the right to sue each other in tort in respect of protection of their property and personal injuries, the law has not gone far enough to grant spouses the right to sue one another for defamation. In other words, based on the current state of the law in Malaysia, spouses cannot sue each other for defamation.
WRITTEN BY:
DAVID SAMUEL
PARTNER
CHAMBERS OF FIRDAUS
