TCV v TCW

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Tan Peck Cheng
• Judgment Date: 20 May 2015
• Neutral Citation: [2015] SGFC 64
• Court: Family Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: D884 of 2014
• Year: 2015
• Published date: 22 July 2015
• Hearing Date: 03 December 2014,07 January 2015,30 January 2015
• Plaintiff Counsel: Tan Wen Cheng Adrian (August Law Corporation)
• Subject Matter: Catchwords: Family Law-Ancillary matters,custody care and control of child
• Citation: [2015] SGFC 64

District Judge Tan Peck Cheng: Introduction

This is a hearing of the ancillary matters adjourned to be heard in chambers after Interim Judgement was granted to dissolve the marriage between the Plaintiff (‘husband’) and the Defendant (‘wife’).

I made the following orders: No order on custody care and control of the child M. This is without prejudice to any application by either party for custody care and control and access after the conclusion of the proceedings in the United Kingdom in relation to the child. Each party to retain all assets in their respective name and there shall be no claim against each other for division of matrimonial assets. The Plaintiff shall pay the Defendant a lump sum maintenance of S$2,400. This is without prejudice to any application by either party for maintenance for the child after the conclusion of the proceedings in the United Kingdom in relation to the child. Liberty to apply.

The husband has appealed my decision on custody, care and control of the child. I set out the reasons for my decision.

Background

The husband is a Singapore citizen, last working as a quantitative analyst with xxx in London (‘UK’). The defendant is a Mongolian citizen and a housewife.

The parties married in Singapore on 28 June 2011. Their only son M (‘the child’) was born in UK on xxx July 2012. The child is a Singapore citizen.

The husband’s account of the marriage and the events leading to his application for leave to file a Writ of Summons for divorce within 3 years of the marriage (‘OSF 36/2014’) were as follows: He stated that he met the wife in Singapore in a nightclub in Hyatt Hotel around December 2010. At that time he was employed by xxx in Singapore but he was based in the United Kingdom (‘UK’). He spent 2 months in the first half of 2011 in Singapore with the wife and they married. After the marriage he returned to UK. He then spared no effort and expense to obtain an UK visa for the wife to join him in UK and he finally obtained a dependant’s visa for her in October 2011. The wife was physically and verbally abusive towards him when they were in Singapore in October 2011. She hit him repeatedly with a metal buckle end of a belt, scratched his face with her finger nails and broke his hand phone and laptop. However as he was married only for about 5 months then he wanted to give their marriage a chance and they left for UK on 28 October 2011. Two weeks after they moved to UK the wife discovered that she was pregnant and she subsequently gave birth to the child in UK. In July 2013 the wife and he returned with the child to Singapore for a short break. The wife told him that she wished to take up a full time course when they returned to UK and would not be in a position to take care of the child. They therefore decided to leave the child with his parents in Singapore and returned to UK without the child on 18 August 2013. The wife continued to be violent towards him in UK. She has called police and made police report in UK against him for domestic violence. On one occasion he spent a night in jail due to her complaint but no action was taken against him by the police for domestic violence. He also found out from her that she had worked as a call girl in Singapore and had entered Singapore previously on her sister’s passport. [see husband’s affidavit filed in support of OSF 36/2014]

There are on-going proceedings in Singapore and UK in this case.

Singapore proceedings

When the parties were in Singapore on 18 January 2014 the husband filed OSF 36/2014 on 22 January 2014 for leave to file a Writ of Summons for divorce within 3 years of marriage and served it on the wife on the same day. The wife immediately moved into a hotel and 3 days later, on 25 January 2014, she returned to UK on her own.

Two days before the filing and service of OSF 36/2014 on the wife, the husband filed OSF 30/2014, to restrain the wife from bringing the child out of Singapore, and OSF 31/2014, for sole custody care and control of the child. His reason was that he was fearful that after the service of OSF36/2014 on the wife she may carry out her previous threat to bring the child away. On 23 January 2014 the court granted an interim order in OSF 30/2014 to restrain the wife from bringing the child out of Singapore.

On 26 February 2014, the husband was granted leave in OSF 36/2014 to file for divorce. He filed the Writ for divorce on 28 February 2014. Interim Judgement was granted on 9 July 2014.

The wife did not enter appearance for the Writ nor take any steps in all the proceedings in Singapore. She only attended 1Pre-trial Conference on 2 October 2014 when she was serving imprisonment sentence of 10 weeks for illegal entry into Singapore by a catamaran from Langkawi, Malaysia with 2 hired Caucasian men to take the child away. Although she informed the court at the Pre-trial Conference that she would not contest the divorce but would engage a lawyer to contest the custody of the child she did not do so. She was released on 7 October 2014. She returned to Mongolia and is currently in UK.

The wife’s UK lawyer had however written to the Family Justice Courts, Singapore (‘FJC’) on 25 July 2014 to request that the Singapore proceedings be ‘stayed and discontinued’. In...