VAI v VAJ

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Court: Family Court (Singapore)
• Judge: Wong Keen Onn
• Judgment Date: 30 August 2019
• Neutral Citation: [2019] SGFC 26
• Citation: [2019] SGFC 26
• Hearing Date: 30 August 2019
• Published date: 25 September 2019
• Year: 2019
• Docket Number: Divorce Suit No 2942 of 2016
• Plaintiff Counsel: Francis Martin Decruz (Shenton Law Practice LLC)
• Defendant Counsel: Ms Carrie Gill and Clement Yap (Eversheds Harry Elias LLP)
• Subject Matter: Family Law,Access,children,Matrimonial Assets,Division,Maintenance

District Judge Wong Keen Onn: Introduction

The Plaintiff (husband) has appealed against part of the decision¹ on ancillary relief regarding the children’s access and maintenance and on the part of division of matrimonial assets.

Background

The Plaintiff (or “husband”) and the Defendant (or “wife”) were married on 6 April 2002. The Plaintiff husband is an Australian national and a Singapore Permanent Resident, aged 41 years old, and he had just attained qualifications as a trained teacher². The Defendant wife is a Singapore citizen, 40 years of age, and is a risk manager drawing a monthly take home income of $21,490 (including bonus)³. They have two sons, B, aged 14 years and C, aged 12⁴.

During the marriage, the parties lived at various times at various places in Singapore and Australia. Sometime in July 2010, the parties and the children moved to live in husband’s hometown in Queensland, Australia where they set up a café and furniture shop. The business venture was not successful. The wife could not find an IT job in Australia. Subsequently, on 30 January 2012, she came back to take up a job with her previous employer in Singapore, leaving the children with the husband for about 4 months⁵. In early August 2012, the wife and children relocated back to Singapore. In the same month, the husband also returned back to Singapore. About two years later in June 2014, the husband left the family in Singapore and went alone to live in Australia⁶.

In August 2015, a dispute broke out between the parties resulting in the breakdown of their marriage⁷. On 21 June 2016, the husband filed for divorce based on the wife’s unreasonable behaviour. In response, the wife filed a defence and counterclaim on unreasonable behaviour⁸. Interim Judgment was granted on 27 December 2016 on an uncontested basis to both the husband’s claim and the wife’s counterclaim. The ancillary matters were adjourned to Chambers. This is a 14-year marriage with two children. The husband now lives in in Australia with a lived-in partner, with whom he has a 1-year-old child.

The Ancillary Order

The ancillary matters came before me for hearing. After reading the affidavits and hearing the evidence and the submissions from both counsel⁹, I made the ancillary order on 12 November 2018 as follows: Custody, care and control and access. By Consent, the Plaintiff and the Defendant shall have joint custody of the two children of the marriage, namely, B (B/C No. XXX) ("B") and C, (B/C No. XXX) ("C") (both also referred to as "the children") with care and control to the Defendant The Plaintiff husband shall have reasonable access to the two children B and C as follows. Reasonable telephone and other internet / electronic access (including Skype and WhatsApp) to the children, at all other times subject to the children's school and school-related activities. On days except for mid-year and year-end School holidays reasonable access in Singapore for up to two (2) weeks on each occasion subject to the children's school and school-related activities (which does not include private tuition) provided the Plaintiff gives at least two (2) week's written notice of his intention to exercise access and to provide his two-way flight and accommodation details For avoidance of doubt, the access in Singapore during weekdays shall be day access only while the access on weekends and public holidays (in Singapore) shall include overnight access For overnight access in Singapore, the Plaintiff shall provide appropriate accommodation for the children and shall bear the full costs of such accommodation, if any. Parties shall mutually agree in advance on the times and place of the handover Mid-year and year-end Singapore school holidays During mid-year and year-end school holidays (in Singapore), one (1) week access during the mid-year May/June holidays and three (3) weeks access at year-end November/December holidays each year The Plaintiff shall give at least three (3) weeks' advance notice in writing of his intention to exercise school holiday access and the place for the access. The precise dates and handover arrangements/place and timings are to be mutually discussed and agreed between the parties at least two weeks in advance, taking into consideration the children's school and school-related activities In the event that either party wishes to have a longer period with the children during school holidays, such variation shall be mutually agreed upon in writing two (2) weeks in advance before the dates that each party intends to spend with the children. Plaintiff is at liberty to bring the children to Australia or another country during the school holiday access and shall bear both the full costs of the two-way air travel or ship travel expenses and surcharges and any excess baggage fees to and from Singapore and the accommodation costs outside Singapore, if any. The Plaintiff shall provide to the Defendant one (1) week before the trip a copy of the two-way flight or ship/cruise tickets, the full itinerary for the trip including accommodation details and the contact details for the children The Defendant shall have reasonable telephone and other internet access to the children when they are residing with the Plaintiff and the Plaintiff shall make arrangements to facilitate this The Defendant shall inform the Plaintiff within 24 hours upon occurrence or receipt of the following Major health issues relating to the children School report card and examination/test results and examination timetables Division of matrimonial assets The Plaintiff shall transfer his share, title and interest in the property known as XX1, Australia ("XX1 property") to the Defendant upon the payment of SGD $27,233.00 from the Defendant to the Plaintiff within three months of the date of this Order. The Defendant shall solely bear the costs and expenses of the transfer The Defendant shall transfer her share, title and interest in the property known as XX2, Australia ("XX2 property") to the Plaintiff within 3 months of the date of this Order. The Plaintiff shall be responsible for paying the outstanding mortgage loan and the outgoings from the date of this Order. The Plaintiff shall solely bear the costs and expenses of the transfer. Save as provided above, the parties retain all other assets held in their respective sole names. For the avoidance of doubt, the Defendant shall retain the property known as XX3, Singapore ("XX3 property") in her sole name. As part of the division of assets, the Defendant shall pay to the Plaintiff an additional sum of SGD $57,078.00 within 3 months of the date of this Order The two bank accounts that are held in the parties' joint names, namely the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) account number XXX (in Singapore) and the St George bank account number XXX (in Australia) shall be closed within 3 months of the date of this Order. Upon the closure of these accounts, the monies in the POSB account number XXX shall be paid to the Defendant and the monies in the St George bank account number XXX shall be paid to the Plaintiff. Maintenance. The Plaintiff shall pay to the Defendant a monthly sum of SGD $860.00 as the children's maintenance (SGD $430.00 for B and SGD $430.00 for C with effect from 30 November 2018 and thereafter on the last day of each month. Payment shall be made into the Defendant's OCBC Statement Savings Account No. XXX That there shall be no maintenance for the Defendant wife Each party to bear their own costs of the proceedings That there be liberty to apply

The Plaintiff (husband) has appealed against part of my decision in the Ancillary Order of Court dated 12 November 2018 on children’s access (clauses 2(b)(i) and 2 (c)(i) only), the children’s maintenance (clause 8) and on the division of matrimonial assets (clauses 3 and 5). I now provide my reasons.

Custody, care and control of the children

Both parties agreed to have joint custody of the two children with care and control to the wife¹⁰. It is not in dispute that the two children of the marriage had been living with the wife in Singapore since the husband left for Australia in 2014. The children have also been attending school in Singapore and the wife is the primary care giver, at least since 2014. I am of the view that, given the circumstances, it was not in the best interest of the children to uproot to live with the husband in Australia. I therefore made a consent order for the parties to have joint custody of the two children of the marriage with care and control to the wife.

Access

Both parties were agreeable to the husband having reasonable telephone and other internet access at all other times when the children are living with the wife in Singapore¹¹. I included that in for access order. The main disagreement was for access during the school holidays.

The husband submitted that as the children are residing in Singapore while he is in Australia, the only time that he would get to spend with his children is when they are having school holidays. He wanted the children spend 80% of their long school holidays with him in Australia¹².

The wife submitted that the school-going children were now 14 and 12 years old and as they grow older, the two children will have greater school commitments. She argued that these long stays away from Singapore during the school holidays have become very disruptive as they, like any other students, would frequently have enrichment classes, school camps and co-curricular activities (CCAs) during part of the school holidays. The Wife’s position was that the Husband should now come to Singapore especially during the shorter school breaks to exercise access rather than the children flying over to Australia (the latter is a very disruptive arrangement). For example, she cited an instance that the older son, B, had missed a school leadership in 2015 and two school rugby...