VTJ v VTK

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Yarni Loi
• Judgment Date: 28 July 2021
• Neutral Citation: [2021] SGFC 78
• Court: Family Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: FC/S7/2019
• Year: 2021
• Published date: 03 August 2021
• Hearing Date: 12 January 2021,11 January 2021
• Plaintiff Counsel: Mr Ushan Premaratne (Withers Khattar Wong) and Mr Michael Lukamto (M/s Joo Toon LLC)
• Defendant Counsel: Mr Kenneth Au-Yong and Ms Lynn Chan Yuen Ling (M/s Ramdas & Wong)
• Subject Matter: Testamentary Capacity,Knowledge and Approval of will,Undue influence
• Citation: [2021] SGFC 78

District Judge Yarni Loi: Introduction

This case involves a dispute between two siblings over the will executed by their late mother (“Mother”) on 20 January 2009 (“2009 Will”). Mother, who had 9 children, passed away, a widow, on 3 November 2018. Under the 2009 Will, Mother had appointed the Defendant (her second youngest daughter), as the sole executor. She bequeathed her estate, which consisted mainly of a 3 room HDB flat (“Tah Ching Flat”), to her eldest daughter (“Eldest Sister”) and the Defendant, in equal shares. Should any of the beneficiaries pre-decease Mother, the surviving beneficiary would be entitled to the entire estate. As Eldest Sister passed away on 28 April 2013, the Defendant became entitled to the entire estate upon Mother’s death.

Mother’s youngest son, the Plaintiff, now challenges the 2009 Will. He alleges that he was closest to Mother and that in around 2003, Mother had executed a will (“2003 Will”) bequeathing her entire estate to him, as sole beneficiary. However, he has misplaced the 2003 Will and was not able to produce a copy of the alleged will to verify its actual contents.

Whilst I do accept that Mother was very close to the Plaintiff and particularly fond of him, she was also very much opposed to his marriage to his current wife, a Chinese national. Mother also had her own close relationships with the other siblings. For example, she was very close to Eldest Sister who appears to have been Mother’s primary confidante and caregiver. As for the Defendant, of all the siblings, she was the one who had never stopped giving Mother a regular monthly allowance ever since she started working.

When marital troubles between the Plaintiff and his current wife grew in around 2008 and the Plaintiff was contemplating divorce, Mother became very worried that the Plaintiff’s wife may end up benefitting from her estate, if she passed away. Hence, she asked Eldest Sister and the Defendant to bring her to a lawyer to make a will, to revoke the earlier 2003 Will and name them as beneficiaries instead. Throughout the material period in 2008/2009, Mother had no known mental condition and the 2009 Will was prepared by a lawyer and executed in ordinary circumstances at a law firm, witnessed by the lawyer and his secretary.

In the intervening years until Mother’s death in November 2018, Eldest Sister, who appears to have been the glue holding the family together, passed away herself in May 2013. After Eldest Sister passed away, the relationships between the siblings, including the Plaintiff and the Defendant, appeared to have become really strained, as they quarrelled bitterly, and took sides, over Mother’s living arrangements as well as her assets. In her later years from 2014 until her passing, Mother ended up living with another one of the siblings, Sixth Sister, who had no knowledge of either the 2003 Will or the 2009 Will, and who was under the impression that Mother would die intestate, with her estate divided equally between all the siblings.

The Plaintiff himself came to know about the 2009 Will only after Mother passed away in November 2018. The discovery was very upsetting to him. He now contends that the 2009 Will is invalid as Mother had lacked testamentary capacity to execute the 2009 Will, did not approve of the 2009 Will and/or had executed it as a result of undue influence by Defendant and Eldest Sister.

I am satisfied, after considering all the evidence, that the Plaintiff’s challenge, driven perhaps by disbelief and sense of injustice, coupled with existing sibling grievances, is groundless. I therefore dismiss his claim.

Background facts and findings

The Plaintiff was Mother’s youngest child and the Defendant was the second youngest child. Their father had passed away in 2000.

Mother and her children (“the Siblings”)

Mother had 9 children in all. They were: Eldest Sister, who passed away on 29 April 2013 at the age of 64 and who is survived by her two sons. Second Brother, who testified on behalf of the Defendant at the trial. He is 70 years old and used to work as a senior superintendent in a multinational company before he retired in 2002. He is married with 4 children. Third Brother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 16 years old. Third Brother stayed with the family until around 2002 (after the death of their father) when he was admitted to a nursing home (“first nursing home”). Subsequently, in 2007, he was transferred to another nursing home (“second nursing home”) where he was still residing at the time of the trial. According to the Plaintiff, he would accompany Mother to visit Third Brother at least once a month until he got married in 2003, when his visits became less frequent. Mother continued to visit Third Brother accompanied by other siblings and her visits only stopped in 2017, just before she passed away. According to the Defendant, Third Brother was actually cared for by various family members and not just Mother. Further, whilst Mother had financially contributed towards Third Brother’s stay at the first nursing home, she did not do so when he moved to stay in the second nursing home. Fourth Brother, who did not participate in this trial; Fifth Sister, who did not participate in this trial; Sixth Sister, who testified on behalf of the Plaintiff at the trial. After Eldest Sister’s death in 2013, Mother stayed with Sixth Sister from 1 January 2014 until she passed away in November 2018; Seventh Brother, who left the home in the 1990s and whose whereabouts are not known to the Plaintiff; the Defendant, who is 58 years old and who works as a technical personnel in the chemical industry; and the Plaintiff, the youngest, who is 57 years of age and works as a librarian. (collectively, “the Siblings”)

According to the Defendant, Mother had primary school education and worked for a Japanese company until she married their father when she was around 20 years old. After her marriage, she worked as a part-time domestic helper for neighbouring families to help make ends meet. She also worked as a kitchen helper at a Cantonese restaurant until her 50s when she stopped working to become a homemaker.

It is not disputed that Mother was fluent in the Hokkien dialect and could speak Cantonese and simple Malay. She also conversed with the grandchildren and the Plaintiff’s wife in simple Chinese. Mother could not read, write or speak English.

In the early years, the family stayed in rental flats before they moved to live in a HDB flat in Jurong (“Jurong Flat”) which was solely owned by Mother. Subsequently, in around 2008, due to an en bloc redevelopment, Mother acquired a replacement flat unit at Tah Ching (“Tah Ching Flat”). Eldest Sister also acquired a flat in the same block as Mother’s, where she lived with her family.

Mother’s relationship with the Siblings involved in this trial

According to the Plaintiff, as the youngest child, he was particularly close to Mother and had a strong bond with her. Mother was protective of him and took on extra jobs to help support his Polytechnic education. When he started working in 1986 until 2007 when his first child was born, he regularly gave Mother an allowance. He also used to bring Mother, Eldest Sister and her children out on weekends to eat and shop. He stopped giving Mother a regular allowance when his first child was born in 2007 due to his growing financial commitments, but would still visit her frequently and buy her things. He has also paid for the hospitalization bill when Mother was admitted to NUH for a cataracts’ operation in around January 2013. After Eldest Sister passed away in May 2013, he brought Mother over to live with his family until she moved in to live with Sixth Sister on 1 January 2014.

According to the Defendant, from the time she started working in 1982 until May 2013 when Mother went to live with the Plaintiff and then Sixth Sister, she gave Mother a regular monthly allowance of around $500 to $700 in cash every month when she visited Mother, with an additional $500 during Chinese New Year. Amongst all the siblings, she was the one sibling who had financially supported Mother consistently and regularly ever since she started working. She also visited Mother regularly and when Mother was still living in the Tah Ching Flat, she would purchase, prepare and carefully pack raw food items for Mother every week so that it was easy for Mother to unpack the raw food items to cook for herself.

The glue that held the siblings together appears to have been Eldest Sister. When she was alive, she appears to have been Mother’s main confidante and took the most care of Mother. As she lived very close to Mother, she would visit her daily to help her with household chores and daily needs, bring her shopping and accompany her to her medical appointments. As Mother was illiterate in English, Eldest Sister also helped her manage her financial affairs. Prior to 2013, when Eldest Sister was still alive, the whole family had a tradition of gathering together at a Pasir Ris Chalet during Chinese New Year. During such gatherings, Mother would prepare red packets herself and personally distribute them to all her grandchildren who came to visit. She would remember the names of all her children and grandchildren and chatted with everyone.

Second Brother testified that until around May 2013 when Mother left the Tah Ching Flat, he too had close interactions with Mother. He lived only two blocks away from Mother and Eldest Sister who often dropped by to visit his family. He and his family would also go out with Mother and Eldest Sister on the weekends, to the supermarket and for shopping.

As for Sixth Sister, she offered to let Mother live with her after Eldest Sister’s death in 2013, from 1 January 2014 until Mother passed away in November 2018. She was of the firm view that Mother should not be put into a nursing home.

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