AKC v AKD
Jurisdiction | Singapore |
Judge | Choo Han Teck J |
Judgment Date | 16 July 2014 |
Neutral Citation | [2014] SGHC 144 |
Plaintiff Counsel | Bernice Loo Ming Nee and Sarah Anne Khoo (Allen & Gledhill LLP) |
Docket Number | Divorce Transferred No 1727 of 2012 |
Date | 16 July 2014 |
Hearing Date | 16 April 2014,30 May 2014 |
Subject Matter | Division,Matrimonial assets,Family Law,Children,Maintenance |
Published date | 17 July 2014 |
Citation | [2014] SGHC 144 |
Defendant Counsel | Mohan Singh (Legalstandard LLP) |
Court | High Court (Singapore) |
Year | 2014 |
This case concerns issues of maintenance of children and the division of matrimonial assets. The plaintiff/wife is 42 years old. The defendant/husband is 39 years. Both are Singapore Citizens. They married on 17 August 2002. On 10 April 2012, the wife filed for divorce on the ground that the husband committed adultery and that she finds it intolerable to live with him. On 28 May 2012, the interim judgment for divorce was granted by the District Court. The ancillary matters were transferred to the High Court on 7 October 2013 because the matrimonial assets exceed $1.5m.
The parties have two children: a 9 year old son, and a 6 year old daughter. The children have been living with the wife since she moved out of the matrimonial home in April 2012. The parties have agreed on matters relating to the custody of, care and control of and access to the children. The wife has not asked for her maintenance before me. In any case, for reasons that will be explained later, I did not award her maintenance for herself.
I deal first with the issue of maintenance of children. On 14 May 2013, the District Court ordered the husband to pay $2,400 per month as interim maintenance for the children. Before me, the wife argues that the husband should provide lump sum maintenance of $300,000, or $4,500 per month if there is no lump sum is provided. In my view, $300,000 lump sum maintenance for both children is not an unreasonable amount, bearing in mind that both children are still young. In the event that the husband is unable to pay lump sum maintenance, I order monthly maintenance fixed at $3,500.
I am prepared to increase the maintenance for the children because additional expenses have to be incurred for the son. The son has a learning disorder (Pervasive Development Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified). The wife says she intends to employ a “shadow teacher” who will sit in her son’s class to watch the son’s behaviour and to assess how best to teach the son to follow class work. The wife says that her son has difficulty remaining in his seat during class, and is prone to shouting in class due to the learning disorder. The son’s school recommended that the wife employ a “shadow teacher”. The cost of hiring the “shadow teacher”, says the wife, is $5,000 per month. She relies on a newspaper article as proof of the costs in hiring the “shadow teacher”.
The husband disputes these expenses for three reasons:
I also reject the husband’s contention that there is no real need for the “shadow teacher” for two reasons:
I am prepared to increase the maintenance for the children, but I would not increase it to $4,500. Under s 69(4) of the Women’s Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed), the court, when ordering maintenance for a child, shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case. Section 69(4) of the Women’s Charter reads:
Court may order maintenance of wife and children 69. —……
(4) The court, when ordering maintenance for a wife or child under this section, shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case including the following matters:
... - the financial needs of the wife or child;
- the income, earning capacity (if any), property and other financial resources of the wife or child;
- any physical or mental disability of the wife or child;
- the age of each party to the marriage and the duration of the marriage;
- the contributions made by each of the parties to the marriage to the welfare of the family, including any contribution made by looking after the home or caring for the family;
- the standard of living enjoyed by the wife or child before the husband or parent, as the case may be, neglected or refused to provide reasonable maintenance for the wife or child;
- in the case of a child, the manner in which he was being, and in which the parties to the marriage expected him to be, educated or trained; and
- the conduct of each of the parties to the
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