To be honest, sibling rivalry and squabbles aren’t exactly uncommon.
It’s just the part and parcel of life, and for some, looking back at these childhood memories might just bring a smile to their lips and a shake of their heads as they thought about how immature they might have been to make such a fuss over the littlest of things.
However, once everyone’s grown up, these squabbles turned from a brawl in the living room to a civil lawsuit in the splendid halls of the high courts.
Oh, how times have changed!
Woman Sued Her Brother and 94YO Dementia Father for 3.27mil for a Sold Apartment Unit
The civil lawsuit in question involves the older 59-year-old sister, Zheng WanZhi (郑玩枝); the 57-year-old youngest brother, Zheng YaPing (郑亚平), and the sibling’s 94-year-old father who suffers from dementia, Zheng XieYong (郑谢勇).
Based on the written and oral opening statement by the plaintiff, Zheng XieYong and his wife had seven children. The plaintiff, Zheng WanZhi, is the sixth in the family while Zheng YaPing is the youngest of the lot.
Their family isn’t a wealthy one and they had to make do with what they had back then.
They lived in a small rented shophouse where their father made Chinese paper offerings, which are usually burnt for the dead, for a living.
As with poor families everywhere, the children were roped in to help with the family business.
According to the prosecution, Zheng WanZhi eventually opened a leather boutique in what was the Prestige Hotel back in 1987.
To do so, she had to borrow money from family friends through her father.
Luckily, the store was a success and she paid off the loan within just 2 to 3 months.
In the following year of 1988, the parents used S$270,000 to buy a unit at Valley Apartments. The money came from the profits of the leather store.
At around the same time, the parents also suggested that Zheng WanZhi should keep the store’s revenue in the two safes at home.
They were worried that the Japanese boyfriend that she was dating at the time would cheat her of her money.
She complied.
Based on her estimation, Zheng WanZhi said that the cash she has stored in the safe over the years amount to around 1 million SGD.
Flipping properties and making it rain cash
Eventually, the unit at Valley Apartments was sold for S$900,000 and from that amount, around S$670,000 was used to purchase another unit at Pacific Mansion.
At that time, Zheng WanZhi found out that despite not contributing anything to the purchase of the Valley Apartments unit, her parents have added her younger brother, Zheng YaPing’s name to the deed.
Naturally, she was upset and confronted her father about it, but her father assured her that YaPing’s name is just there for show and that he’s not really one of the owners of the house.
Unfortunately for her, YaPing’s name was also included in the deed in the Pacific Mansion purchase, besides her father’s name, while her name wasn’t on the deed.
In 2018, the unit at Pacific Mansion was sold collectively for around S$3.27mil, which both the named house owners, the father and the brother, received.
However, as the father has dementia and could no longer make his own decisions, Zheng YaPing has applied to become his father’s assignee, which allows him to tap into his father’s share of the money.
This is something that is vehemently protested by Zheng WanZhi and her other older siblings.
And what the defence has to say?
As reviewed by LianHe ZaoBao (联合早报), the defence statement indicated that the leather boutique that Zheng WanZhi supposedly owned was actually owned by the father, Zheng XieYong, as he was the one who funded the capital for the store.
According to the defence, WanZhi was simply given the store to manage by the father.
The unit at Valley Apartments was also purchased by the father as he was the one who applied for a bank loan and supplemented his purchase with cash.
Since both the leather store and the Valley Apartment unit were funded by her father, Zheng WanZhi has no right to claim a portion of the money from the collective sale of the Pacific Mansion unit.
Blood is unfortunately not thicker than money
The high court judge who is presiding over the case, Chen ChengAn (陈成安), is definitely in for a headache of a case.
He had matter-of-factly pointed out that since the mother has already passed away and that the father is suffering from dementia, “the children can say whatever they want…”
The case will resume on Apr 9th.
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