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SINGAPORE – Two sons of a wealthy widow, who each received a smaller inheritance than their three other siblings, questioned the validity of their will, claiming that their mother’s bipolar disorder had affected her mental ability to make a will.
The mother of five, who went from being one of a businessman’s four lovers to the matriarch of the family, passed away in November 2016, just days before her 81st birthday.
In his May 2002 will, he gave his eldest son, second son and youngest son a portion of his estate each, while his only daughter received half.
His third son, a father of three who was unemployed for most of his adult life, received just $ 10,000.
In a written judgment on Tuesday (December 22), the National Court determined that the will was valid and ruled in favor of the woman’s eldest and second children, the executors of the will who were sued by her two brothers.
Judicial Commissioner Tan Puay Boon determined that the woman’s bipolar disorder was in remission at the time, rejecting her third son and daughter’s claim that their mother lacked probate capacity.
He also rejected her claim that her mother made the will under the “undue influence” of her older and second siblings.
The judge said the evidence showed that she “exercised a substantial degree of free will and independence in her day-to-day affairs” when making the will.
The woman, a former Cantonese-speaking salon hostess, left property that the judge called “substantial.”
It included an 856.9-square-meter family property in Tanjong Katong worth more than $ 10 million.
If the will had been declared invalid and his estate had been divided equally among the five siblings, the three favored children would each receive several million dollars less.
She also provided for her husband’s children from her first marriage, leaving her biological son $ 10,000 and two adopted children $ 5,000 each.
In a 123-page sentence, the judge delved into the woman’s relationship with each member of the family, the facts surrounding the making of the will, her medical history and the expert opinion of four psychiatrists.
The document did not reveal the names of the family members, who were instead assigned pseudonyms.
The woman, who was forced to work in nightclubs since she was a teenager, became the third lover of a man described as a womanizer.
She had five children with him and, after the death of his first wife, he married her.
Although they were a loving couple, she had fits of jealousy, suspecting that her husband was having affairs with the housekeeper and her daughter-in-law.
She was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1978.
In 1997, she was found in the family home holding a knife and screaming for no reason.
Over the years, she was treated for her mental illness on multiple occasions.
After her husband’s death in January 2002, she asked her lawyer to draft a letter to evict her third son, Derek, from the family home. He also told the lawyer to draw up a will.
In April 2003, he fell into a coma from an overdose of lithium, which was prescribed to treat his bipolar disorder. He never fully recovered and lost his mental capacity.
At sentencing, the judge said the woman’s motive for giving Derek just $ 10,000 was “logically explainable” given their bad relationship.
Derek, who lived in the family home with his wife and children, never had to get a job because his father gave each son a significant portion of the family businesses, with annual dividends amounting to between $ 100,000 and $ 200,000.
Several witnesses said the woman frequently complained about Derek’s unemployment and his refusal to move.
She was so determined that he move that she used a changkul, a digging tool with a long handle, to break the windows in her bedroom in 1999.
The judge said it was also explainable that the woman gave her daughter Celine less than the other three children received, but more than Derek received.
She said there was sufficient evidence that women held conservative views on gender roles and subscribed to the traditional values of her generation that favored sons over daughters.
The judge noted that Celine’s decision to marry a Caucasian man upset her mother, who threatened to disown her and refused to attend her wedding. Mother and daughter finally reconciled after Celine gave birth to her first child.
“Whatever legacy children can hope to receive under the will of a deceased parent, it must be remembered that a testator has full autonomy over how to dispose of their estate,” the judge said.
“A father has the right to have favorite children and less favored children, according to his subjective preferences.”
Unless the will can be shown to be void due to lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence or some other reason, the parents’ wishes must be respected and followed, the judge said.
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