The North Borneo court considered who was entitled to receive the annual sums under the 1878 and 1903 instruments after Sultan Jamalul Kiram’s death in 1936.
Why the heirs went to court
Sultan Jamalul Kiram died in 1936. The annual sums established in 1878 and 1903 remained payable, but the recipients had to be determined. The 1939 case therefore lets us see the arrangement operating as an inherited entitlement, more than sixty years after the first grant.
Why this record matters
The defendants admitted that the money was payable. The dispute over its recipients demonstrates that the obligation survived the Sultan’s death and passed into a question of inheritance.
Sources & further reading
High Court of the State of North Borneo · scan hosted by Sulu Arbitration
Dayang Dayang Haji Piandao Kiram and eight others v. the Government of North Borneo and others, Civil Suit No. 169/39, 18 December 1939, opening page.