Oral family settlement memorialised later need not be registered and does not attract stamp duty as partition instrument.

A memorandum that merely records an already concluded oral family settlement and partition does not itself create or extinguish rights in praesenti, so it is not compulsorily registrable. On settled principles governing family arrangements, an oral settlement remains valid without registration, and a later memorandum that only evidences that prior arrangement stays outside the registration requirement if it does not itself effect a partition. For the same reason, such a document is not an instrument of partition and does not attract stamp duty as a partition deed. The notices issued for valuation and stamp duty were therefore liable to be withdrawn.

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Issues: Whether a memorandum recording an already concluded oral family settlement and partition required compulsory registration or stamp duty, and whether the consequential notices for valuation and stamp duty could be cancelled.

Analysis: The settlement among the family members was found to be an oral arrangement already arrived at, with the memorandum serving only as a record of that prior understanding and not as the instrument creating or extinguishing rights in praesenti. On the settled legal principles governing family arrangements, an oral family settlement does not require registration, and a mere memorandum prepared after such settlement is likewise outside the mischief of compulsory registration where it does not itself effect a partition. Applying the same principle to stamp duty, a document that merely records an earlier oral partition is not an instrument of partition and therefore does not attract duty as a partition instrument.

Conclusion: The memorandum was not compulsorily registrable, no stamp duty was payable on it, and the notices seeking valuation and stamp duty were liable to be withdrawn.

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