Woman loses claim to late husband’s flat; he left her with nothing and called their marriage a sham
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 23 Jan 2025
Author: Nadine Chua
Dismissing the woman's appeal, the High Court judge noted that the man had made a number of claims to insist the marriage was a sham.
A woman has lost an appeal in the High Court to claim a three-room flat her late husband owned, after he left her out of his will and declared their marriage a sham.
The man died in September 2015, two years after he married the woman in October 2013.
Before he died, he told his friend that the marriage was never consummated.
This was a claim he had also made earlier in 2014, when he told reporters from Shin Min Daily News that they did not even hold hands and that he addressed the woman only as “Miss”.
The Shin Min article, which detailed his rocky relationship with his wife, identified the man then as a 69-year-old retired bus driver. His wife was in her 40s. Their names were redacted from court documents.
He first met his wife, a Chinese national, in 2011 when she rented a room in his Whampoa flat. She was in Singapore on a long-term visit pass with her daughter, who was studying here.
The woman first contested her late husband’s will in a district court after she learnt that he had left the three-room flat he owned to his half-sister.
Checks by The Straits Times showed that three-room flats in Whampoa Drive were sold for around $320,000 to $410,000 in 2024.
After losing her case, the woman took the matter to the High Court.
Dismissing her appeal, Justice Choo Han Teck noted that the man had made a number of claims to insist the marriage was a sham.
In interviews with journalists in 2014, the man said that two days after their marriage was registered, the woman chased the other tenant out of the flat, refused to pay rental and utility bills, and even took away his mother’s relics.
In a written judgment on Jan 21, 2025, Justice Choo said: “Subsequently, he could no longer tolerate her behaviour and suggested to her several times that he wanted to annul the marriage.
“The appellant, however, allegedly refused to accept his suggestion.”
The judge said that after the man died, the woman closed his bank account and withdrew the remaining sum of around $3,200. She also claimed her husband’s Central Provident Fund money, which amounted to almost $40,000.
The woman contested the will, arguing that her husband was not in the right frame of mind when it was drawn up in August 2015.
The man was then in hospital, where he had a foot amputated because of a medical condition. During the stay, he asked his friend of 45 years, identified in court documents as L, to meet him.
He told L the woman did not visit him at the hospital, and said his marriage was a sham.
The man told his friend to prepare the will, and added that he wanted to leave everything to his half-sister, who he said had led a hard life.
In his will, the man said that he had married the woman to help her extend her stay in Singapore, a claim his wife denied in court.
She said her long-term visit pass would have allowed her to stay in Singapore until 2018.
The woman argued that her husband was under undue influence when he signed the will, but Justice Choo said the woman failed to provide evidence of this.
He accepted that the man might have been affected by the physical and emotional pain of losing his foot, and might have not been in the right frame of mind when the will was drawn up.
But he added that medical records showed that the man was alert and comfortable the day he signed the document.
Justice Choo agreed with the district judge that apart from “making a stab in the dark with bare allegations”, the woman had failed to provide evidence to prove that undue influence was exercised over the man in the execution of his will.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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