Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 34

Summary: - The required complement of witnesses varies according to the subject of the testimony. The doctrine of Imam Malik. - If the subject of the testimony is ordinarily apparent to men and is neither property nor intended to obtain property, it is established by the testimony of two witnesses, neither of whom is a woman. - Where the subject of the testimony concerns the female appellant’s trustworthiness and fitness to safeguard her daughter’s health and morals—matters unrelated to property and observable by men—it is established by the testimony of two men, neither of whom is a woman. The challenged judgment’s ruling to the contrary violates the law. Rule: It is established in the jurisprudence of this Court that, under the doctrine of Imam Malik, the required complement of witnesses varies according to the subject of the testimony. If the subject of the testimony is ordinarily apparent to men and is neither property nor intended to obtain property, it is established by the testimony of two witnesses, neither of whom is a woman. That being so, and since the subject of the testimony in the case before the Court concerns the female appellant’s trustworthiness and fitness to safeguard her daughter’s health and morals, which are matters unrelated to property and are also observable by men, they are established by the testimony of two men, neither of whom is a woman. Since the first-instance judgment, upheld by the challenged judgment, based its ruling depriving the female appellant of custody of her daughter on the statements of the first respondent’s witnesses, namely his brother, his sister and his maternal aunt, it violated the law and must be quashed.