3 Wives, Daughter Battle Over $2m House

Source : The Straits Times, Nov 26, 2007

THREE elderly wives of a retired policeman who died in 2005 are fighting in court with the daughter of the fourth wife over a $2.05-million house in Serangoon.

The trio, aged 79 to 81, say that Ms Seah Min Wai, 46, who practised as a lawyer until 2000, should return $2.04 million to the old man's estate.

The reason: She bought the house from her father in 1995 but paid only $10,000 for it.

Hearing into the lawsuit, fixed for five days, opened in the High Court on Monday.

The patriarch, Mr Seah Wee Tuan, was a police sub-inspector until his retirement in 1969. He took four wives, all of whom he wed through customary rites, and had 14 children.

He built a pair of semi-detached houses on a plot of land on Sommerville Road belonging to his mother.

He lived in one with his fourth wife and their two daughters and transferred the other to his nephew.

He died in May 2005 at the age of 80.

In his 1989 will, he left specific sums, totalling $55,000, to eight of his children, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, nephews, nieces and grandchildren.

The rest of his estate was to be split among his wives, with the first three each getting 20 per cent and the fourth, Madam Cheng Boa Yee, 70, inheriting 40 per cent.

Now, the three wives - Madam Cheah Lee Kheng, Madam Wong Kang Choy and Madam Wong Siew Tian - are claiming $2.04 million from Ms Seah, who is Madam Cheng's younger daughter.

They are represented by Senior Counsel Molly Lim and Mr Roland Tong, while Ms Seah is defending herself.

Madam Cheng is not a party to the case, although she was in court with her daughter.

In her opening statement, Ms Lim told the court that witnesses will testify that the patriarch had always intended to leave the property for the four wives.

She argued that Ms Seah is holding the property on trust for the patriarch's estate.

Ms Seah disputes this.

She noted in her opening statement that the plaintiffs have never stayed in the house and that there was an absence of evidence of her father's oral declaration of trust.

She insisted that her father had waived payment when he transferred the house to her.

But this claim was questioned by Ms Lim.

She noted that Ms Seah had initially claimed that she was not indebted to her father's estate because she had paid for the house in full.

Ms Lim said that it was only after the plaintiffs filed a court application compelling her to answer their questions, that Ms Seah admitted she had paid only $10,000.