Trust Estate
Singapore's Court Of Appeal Increases Will Payout To Daughter After Challenge - Report
A daughter who challenged terms of a will payment from her late father has succeeded in having the sum increased, a report said.
A Singapore court has ruled that a person offered S$200,000 as part of a will is to instead receive more than S$2 million ($1.41 million), arguing that the woman’s late father's estate was to be shared based on intestacy rules on the division of assets and not on a note left by the patriarch, according to the Straits Times of Singapore.
The Court of Appeal reportedly ruled that a key consent document signed in 2010 by the assistant, Madam Kuek Siew Chew, 57, was invalid as she was not told of the value of her late father's estate at the time. Her father Kuek Ser Beng had died at the age of 72 in 2007 without a will but left assets including two houses, shares and savings, understood to be worth more than S$13 million, the publication said.
However, the family found a note in the safe after the man’s death, under which the bulk of the estate would go to his son Hock Eng and his family. Madam Kuek, her elder sister Siew Eng, 63, and their mother, Madam Lim Swee, would each get $200,000 under the note.
But the patriarch had a second family with Madam Goh Ah Pi, with whom he had five children, the report said.
Siew Chew then signed a consent deed in 2010 to authorise her brother's two children, Kuek Siang Wei and Kuek Tsing Tsia, as administrators to settle the dispute with the second family. This led to a deed of arrangement in November 2010 under which Madam Goh's family would get a share, and some S$1.65 million would be set aside from the estate to settle the dues under the note left by the patriarch, which included $200,000 for Siew Chew.
But, in 2012, she hired lawyer Tng Kim Choon, found out the extent of her late father's estate and successfully applied to the High Court to quash the consent documents.
The two administrators, through lawyer G Raman, appealed against the High Court decision, but this was rejected by the appeals court, comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang and Justice Steven Chong, the reports added.