Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 4064

Registration of properties before it was entrusted to the Courts Department in 1932 AD. The late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Adsani’s competence in that regard, followed by judges of the Al-Adsani family. Contracts drawn up at that time are called Adsani documents. Their status as Sharia deeds in official instruments and as documents of the deed holder’s ownership of the real estate specified therein. The Adsani document continued to be sufficient in itself during the application of the Majalla of Judicial Provisions and during the operation of Registration Law 5 of 1959. - 796 - Ownership - The provision of Article 14 of Law 5 of 1959, as amended by Law 73 of 1979. The intended meaning of previously registered instruments extends to Sharia documents subsequent to the introduction of the real estate registration system in 1932. As for instruments whose date was established or which were authenticated before the notary public or Sharia courts before 26/4/1960, the intended meaning is private instruments. The addressee of this Article is the authority entrusted with registration, without prejudice to the authority of the courts, which may rely on any evidence establishing real estate ownership so long as it is a legally recognised means of proof. - Official instruments. The court may rely on them in ascertaining real estate ownership. The existence of the original is not necessary for reliance upon them, so long as their particulars appear in another official instrument or instruments sufficiently to indicate the previous existence of the original. - Final adjudication. It acquires the force of res judicata only in respect of a dispute that arose between the litigants and was determined by the court expressly or implicitly. Consequence. Failure to register the judgment declaring the validity and enforceability of the sale contract to transfer ownership to the purchaser. Has no effect on its binding force between its parties and on preventing them from raising, in any subsequent action, matters previously necessarily determined expressly or by inevitable implication, even on the basis of new legal or factual evidence. - Acknowledgment of ownership. It is a relinquishment by the acknowledging party of his right to require his opponent to prove the ownership he claims, and a statement by him of pre-existing ownership in the latter. It constitutes evidence binding on the acknowledging party without any need for registration, because it is not an instrument of title but evidence thereof. Condition therefor: it must be made by the acknowledging party of his free and conscious will. A litigant’s reliance on the acknowledgment and its significance. A material defence. Disregarding it is a deficiency that vitiates the judgment. Registration of a gift contract: