# Husband dies in US while awaiting trial for son's murder
# Two years later, wife returns to S'pore to find...
THERE was a shock waiting for Madam Chen Tsui Yu when she returned to Singapore after more than 10 years in the US.
SOLD: Margate Road property sold for $4.8m in 2006. House demolished, land under development --
Two properties, worth millions of dollars, belonging to her late husband and herself, had been transferred to her in-laws.
One of the properties was then sold.
Taiwan-born Madam Chen, 52, who migrated to US from Singapore in 1994 with her husband and adopted son, is no stranger to shocks.
Her husband, Singapore-born Loo Chay Loo, 50, stabbed adopted son Benson, then 17, in2004.
Benson died and his father was arrested.
In 2005, while in jail awaiting trial for murder, Loo, a US citizen, tried to kill himself.
He went into a coma and later died.
HELD IN TRUST
When Madam Chen returned to Singapore this year, she learned that her brother-in-law and mother-in-law had claimed that the properties were held in trust.
Madam Chen denied this and contends that she and her late husband are the rightful owners.
RENTED OUT: Seraya Lane property currently occupied bypre-school -- Pictures: LIANHE ZAOBAO
Both cases involving the two properties are expected to go to trial this year or early next year.
According to court documents, Loo's older brother, Mr Loo Chay Sit, in his late 50s, claimed he was the rightful owner of a bungalow at Margate Road, near Mountbatten Road.
Mr Loo claimed that he had bought the house for $195,000 in 1978 but, as he was undergoing a divorce, he made a verbal agreement with his younger brother to place the house under the latter's name.
His mother, Madam Tan Chan Tee, in her 70s, also claimed she bought a house in Seraya Lane, which is in Madam Chen's name.
TAKING CONTROL
Madam Tan claimed that Madam Chen was holding the house in trust and she was entitled to take control of the place, which has been rented out to a pre-school.
Court papers stated that in April 2005, while Loo Chay Loo was lying unconscious in hospital in the US after the suicide attempt, his brother applied to the High Court here to take possession of the Margate Road house.
Later that year, a writ of summons was sent to Madam Chen's address in San Francisco.
-- File picture: THE STRAITS TIMES
Mr Loo claimed that when there was no response, he advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle.
When Madam Chen still did not respond to the summons, the High Court delivered a default judgment in favour of Mr Loo in March2006.
Around September that year, Mr Loo sold the Margate Road house for $4.8 million.
It is understood that the house has been demolished.
In 2006, Madam Tan applied to the High Court to take control of the Seraya Lane property.
On 25 Jan this year, the High Court delivered a default judgment in her favour.
When Madam Chen returned to settle her late husband's estate, she learnt about the claims on the Margate Road and Seraya Lane properties.
Court documents did not state why she is settling her husband's estate only now.
In May, Madam Chen filed an affidavit stating that she had bought the Seraya Lane property from Madam Tan and her sister-in-law, Ms Teo Swee Lian, in 1987.
She added that the house was in her name and she had never held the house in trust.
She provided documents that listed her as the landord of the property and that cheques from the tenants were made out in her name.
That same month, she filed another affidavit stating that the Margate Road house - her matrimonial home in Singapore - was in her husband's name when she married him in 1980.
She said that there was never any discussion about a trust arrangement for the property.
Madam Chen added that she did not know about the writ of summons as it was sent to her old home address.
She said Mr Loo knew that she had moved because she was corresponding with her in-laws using a different address since moving to the US.
She had moved in to live with her sister.
Madam Chen said Mr Loo and his family had even visited her at her sister's home in San Mateo, California, when she was living there between September 2004 and February 2005.
She said that she could not read English and would not have read the Chronicle's advertisement, summoning her to court.
JUDGMENTS SET ASIDE
Madam Chen asked the Court to set aside both default judgments.
On 16 Jul, the High Court ordered that the default judgment on the Seraya Lane property be set aside.
Nine days later, it ordered that the default judgment on the Margate Road property be set aside too.
Mr Loo's appeal against the Margate Road judgment was dismissed on 13 Aug. No appeal was filed against the Seraya Lane judgment.
The High Court has ordered Mr Loo to disclose the sale proceeds of the Margate Road house, and for the money to be held by the court, pending the outcome of the ownership tussle.
The New Paper could not contact Mr Loo, Madam Tan or Madam Chen.
No comments:
Post a Comment