TDQ v TDR
Court | Family Court (Singapore) |
Judge | Masayu Norashikin |
Judgment Date | 21 August 2015 |
Neutral Citation | [2015] SGFC 109 |
Citation | [2015] SGFC 109 |
Docket Number | Divorce Petition No. 2119 of 2012 |
Hearing Date | 13 April 2015,06 January 2015 |
Published date | 04 September 2015 |
Plaintiff Counsel | Ms Aye Cheng Shone [A C Shone & Co] |
Defendant Counsel | Mr Liaw Jin Poh [Tan Lee & Choo] |
Subject Matter | Catch words: Family law division of matrimonial assets adverse inference,Family law,procedure - husband filing affidavit replying to interrogatories after part-heard ancillary matter hearing,request for interrogatories withdrawn |
Grounds of decision
Parties were married in September 1999. There is one child to the marriage born in May 2001. The Plaintiff Wife filed for divorce based on the fact that parties had lived apart for a period of at least 3 years preceding the filing of the Writ (since 1 October 2008), and the Defendant consented to a judgment being granted. Interim Judgment was granted on 20 June 2012.
I heard the ancillary matters on 6 January 2015 and 13 April 2015. After the first hearing on 6 January 2015, the Defendant husband filed a further affidavit without leave of court or consent of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff filed Summons 404/2015 to strike out the said affidavit. This Summons was heard together with the ancillary matters at the second hearing on 13 April 2015.
I reserved judgment and my decision on the Plaintiff’s summons to 8 May 2015, whereupon I allowed the Plaintiff’s application to strike out the Defendant’s affidavit with costs, and made the following orders on the ancillary matters.
The Defendant appealed against my decision not to allow his last affidavit, and against the division of the Joo Chiat property as well as the nett sale proceeds of the St Patrick’s property.
I set out below the grounds of my decision, focusing on the matters on appeal. I shall refer to the Plaintiff as “Wife” and the Defendant as “Husband”.
Background
The Wife is 48 years old. She was employed as the Managing Director of xxx with take-home pay of almost $23,000 but had resigned by the time of the hearing.
The Husband is 51 years old. He said he is a Certified Public Accountant, holds an MBA in Investment Management and had always worked in the finance sector. He was working for a company called xxx (it was not clear whether the employer was xxx Singapore or xxx Holding) from 2001 to 2011, with a last-drawn salary of $7,000 as the xxx. After leaving the company, the Husband set up his own business via a Malaysian company, xxx. He claimed to have just started drawing a monthly salary of MYR 5,000 and to be travelling extensively throughout Malaysia and Indonesia.
Parties were originally from Malaysia and moved to Singapore in May 2001, 7 days after the child was born. Both parties were working throughout the marriage, except for the period from 18 May 2001 to July 2002 when the Wife stayed home to take care of the newborn child. They began staying in separate rooms from October 2008.
Throughout the course of the marriage, parties had purchased 3 properties:-
The Wife left the matrimonial home with the child in May 2010 and moved into the St Patrick’s property, allegedly due to the Husband’s threats and commotions. She obtained a Personal Protection Order against the Husband in 2011. However, the Wife and child had to vacate the St Patrick’s property on 31 October 2012 due to the en bloc sale. Since then, she has been renting premises at $3,300 a month. She alleged that the Husband did not allow her and the child to move back to the Joo Chiat property unless he was staying there too. This was despite the property being vacant since the Husband is based in Malaysia.
Pool of matrimonial assets
The undisputed matrimonial assets are set out in the table below.
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The Husband alleged that the Wife’s bank balances and assets should be of much higher value, taking into account her monthly income of $23,800 and minimal contributions towards the household expenses. The Wife’s reply to this was that her income had risen from $6,200 in 2002...
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