After Rich Patriarch Dies... Sons Fight Over 'Mansion' He Built For Them

Source : The Electric New Paper, November 16, 2007

HIS was a classic rags-to-riches story.

A poor immigrant from China, Mr Ong Chay Tong became a successful businessman through his entrepreneurship and hard work.

As chairman of mainboard-listed Hwa Hong, the late Mr Ong managed a group which included insurance, engineering, property development, manufacturing and trading companies.

He had two wives, who bore him six sons. And Mr Ong built an apartment block on Nallur Road, so that his sons could live there.

It was called Ong Mansion and, in 1979, each of Mr Ong's sons paid $100,000 for a unit there.

A company, Ong Chay Tong & Sons, was set up to own the land and all six sons were directors.

Under a resolution, they were barred from selling their units to anyone except to this company.

And if they sold it to the company at any time, they would only get the $100,000 back.

After Mr Ong's death in 1993, the sons began fighting over his assets.

DISPUTE

In 2003, they went to court over their shares in Hwa Hong. That was settled out of court, but earlier this year, they met in court again.

The legal battle pitted the sons of Mr Ong's first wife - Choo Eng, Kay Eng, Hian Eng, Kwee Eng and Mui Eng - against their half-brother, Hoo Eng.

The company controlled by the first wife's sons claimed a stake in Hoo Eng's apartment.

It turned out that in 1998, Choo Eng had called for a directors' meeting at Ong Chay Tong & Sons to pass a second resolution.

This resolution allowed him and his brothers to transfer their flats to their male-line descendants.

Hoo Eng did not participate in that meeting. He and his mother, MadamChang Yueh Nu, who also had shares in Ong Chay Tong & Sons, did not get along with the other sons even when Mr Ong was alive.

And in June last year, Hoo Eng and his mother sold their shares in this company to his half-brothers. He also resigned as a director of Ong Chay Tong & Sons. However, he continued to own the apartment.

In August last year, Ong Chay Tong & Sons passed a third resolution to overturn the 1998 resolution. The company then claimed an interest in Hoo Eng's flat, and lodged a caveat against the property, saying it could be sold only to Ong Chay Tong & Sons.

DILEMMA

Hoo Eng asserted that the company had no right to impose the caveat.

This caused a dilemma for the Registrar of Titles, as it had to be decided if the caveat should remain on the land register.

The Registrar decided that the parties should let the High Court resolve the dispute, and Ong Chay Tong & Sons asked the court to order that the caveat be allowed to stay.

Last month, Justice Kan Ting Chiu dismissed the company's claim.

In his written judgment, Justice Kan described the company's third resolution as 'mischievous and misleading', as it was passed on the same day the caveat was lodged.

By passing the 1998 resolution, the company had already ceded its rights to be the first purchaser of the flats in Ong Mansion. The third resolution could not revive this right.

Justice Kan wrote: 'This action is on its face, a dispute over whether a caveat should remain on the land register. The real cause of the dispute was disharmony between the children of the two wives of a patriarch.'

Hoo Eng's lawyer, Mr Albert Teo, declined comment as Ong Chay Tong & Sons still has two weeks to appeal.

Their lawyer said his client has not decided whether to appeal or not.

Hoo Eng and his brothers are still shareholders of Hwa Hong, with Choo Eng as its managing director.