Judge voids marriage of man who died in 2017 after mum sues Vietnamese ‘wife’
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 04 Mar 2025
Author: Selina Lum
The judge said public policy requires the court to not permit the "spouse" of a sham marriage to inherit the other party’s assets.
After a man died in 2017, leaving behind a Housing Board flat in his sole name, his 74-year-old mother, who lived in the property, could not apply for letters of administration to deal with his assets.
This was because the 45-year-old unemployed man was legally married to a Vietnamese woman who apparently went missing shortly after the marriage was registered in 2013.
In 2022, Madam Kee Cheong Keng, who works as a cleaner, sued the Vietnamese woman, Ms Dinh Thi Thu Hien, seeking a declaration that the marriage was a sham.
Madam Kee, who was represented by Mr Sunil Singh Panoo, asked the court to void the marriage, which would pave the way for the letters of administration to be granted to her.
She also engaged a lawyer in Vietnam to serve court papers on Ms Hien, and published an advertisement in a Vietnamese newspaper, but the younger woman did not respond.
On Feb 28, a High Court judge found that the marriage was not genuine and declared it void.
In a written judgment, Justice Choo Han Teck noted that Madam Kee’s son had died more than seven years ago and his “wife” was nowhere to be found.
The judge said: “The state’s institutions and benefits (such as public housing and social services) lie open to exploitation should the sham marriage not be declared void. It would also be unjust to the beneficiaries of the deceased’s estate.”
Madam Kee’s legitimate interests as an occupier of the flat are also affected, said Justice Choo.
“Public policy requires this court to declare the sham marriage void and not permit the ‘spouse’ of a sham marriage to inherit the other party’s assets,” he said.
Justice Choo also directed that the names of the parties not be redacted, in the event that Ms Hien finds the report and wishes to challenge the verdict.
Madam Kee’s son, who is not named in the judgment, married Ms Hien on May 14, 2013, in Singapore.
He died without a will on June 18, 2017.
According to Madam Kee, he told the family in September 2013 over dinner that he had entered into a sham marriage with Ms Hien.
Madam Kee’s two other sons and a daughter were present at the dinner.
She said her son had been approached by “marriage agents” who asked him to marry an individual selected by them in exchange for a down payment of $3,000 and monthly payment of $400 thereafter.
However, shortly after the marriage, Ms Hien defaulted on her monthly payments and became uncontactable.
On his family’s advice, the man lodged a police report on Sept 29, 2013, to say that she was missing.
Madam Kee and her three other children said they had never seen Ms Hien before her disappearance.
She said she was unsuccessful in multiple attempts to contact the Vietnamese woman.
She lodged two police reports on July 5, 2017, to state that her son and Ms Hien were in a sham marriage and that the woman had never stepped into the flat.
The dead man’s father testified that he agreed to the letters of administration being issued solely to Madam Kee and that he was waiving his rights to his son’s assets.
It is unclear if Madam Kee is married to him.
In his judgment, Justice Choo said he was satisfied that Madam Kee had proven on a balance of probabilities that the marriage was a sham.
The man and Ms Hien had lived separately, and none of his family members had even met the woman before.
There was no wedding celebration that the family members were aware of, and there were no photographs of the man and Ms Hien together.
The judge said Ms Hien’s intentions behind the marriage were unclear.
However, it could be inferred that the marriage was to allow her to stay in Singapore and eventually apply for permanent residency or citizenship.
As for the man, the arrangement offered him a significant monetary benefit at a time when he had no income.
Justice Choo noted that the current case was a civil suit to determine the validity of the marriage.
He said Madam Kee could subsequently file an application at the Family Justice Courts for the letters of administration.
According to annual statistics released on Feb 14 by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), 41 people were arrested for marriage-of-convenience offences in 2024, compared with eight in 2023.
ICA said the rise in arrests was the result of increased enforcement efforts to investigate and disrupt such arrangements by syndicates.
Selina Lum is senior law correspondent at The Straits Times.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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