Sim Hong Boon v Sim Lois Joan

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: T Kulasekaram J
• Judgment Date: 24 November 1972
• Neutral Citation: [1972] SGCA 14
• Citation: [1972] SGCA 14
• Date: 24 November 1972
• Published date: 19 September 2003
• Plaintiff Counsel: J Grimberg (Drew & Napier)
• Docket Number: Civil Appeal No 31 of 1972
• Defendant Counsel: Henry Hangchi (Hangchi, Lee & Woo)
• Court: Court of Appeal (Singapore)
• Year: 1972

This action was commenced by the appellant against the respondent, his wife, and the co-respondent. With regard to a prayer in the petition for custody of the child of the marriage, Mr D`Cotta J after hearing the evidence of the petitioner, the appellant in the present proceedings, declined to make any order in favour of the appellant for the custody of the child of the marriage.

The facts are that the parties were married in March 1965, the husband being a Singapore citizen of Chinese origin and the wife an Australian citizen. The husband was educated and obtained a professional qualification as an architect in Australia where he met and married his wife. Two months later the married couple came to Singapore and the matrimonial home was set up here. In December 1967 a son, the subject matter of the present custody application, was born. On the evidence, sometime after the child was born and before March 1969 the wife had an association with someone in Singapore which was objected to by the husband and the parties thereupon or the marriage thereupon appeared to head towards a possible breakdown. In March 1969, the husband in the course of his professional activities left Singapore for Europe and in the hope of the marriage being kept a happy one, the husband agreed at the suggestion of the wife for her to take a holiday in Australia for three months and to take with her the son of the marriage. Since the wife left Singapore in March 1969 with the child she has never returned to Singapore nor has the son come back to Singapore. It seems to be a fair inference on the evidence that the wife when she left Singapore had no intention of keeping the marriage intact and at any rate had no intention of returning to Singapore back to the matrimonial home and bring the son back with her. The appellant, the father, went to Australia, Perth, in April 1970 and in spite of the fact that by then he had discovered that the wife was associating with the co-respondent, he tried to salvage the marriage and to persuade the wife to return to Singapore back to the matrimonial home.

Before the appellant returned to Australia in September 1969, the wife had commenced or had taken up proceedings by way of originating summons in the Supreme Court of Western Australia seeking an order for custody of the child and in that application the Supreme Court of Western Australia made an interim order for the custody of the child as well as an injunction to restrain the appellant from removing or attempting to remove the child from the custody of the mother. In May 1970 apparently the originating summons was restored before the Western Australia Supreme Court and it was adjourned sine die for the purpose of giving the husband the opportunity to take proceedings for dissolution of the marriage and...