'This may rank in the year's top 10 anticlimaxes': Judge rejects woman's attempt to reverse father's wishes

SINGAPORE - After finding out that her elderly father had appointed her older brother to make decisions on his behalf should he lose his mental capacity, a woman went to court seeking to revoke her father’s Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).

The 60-year-old woman, who has a bitter relationship with her brother, claimed that her 94-year-old father was mentally unfit when he appointed her 62-year-old sibling as the donee of his LPA in 2021.

An LPA is a legal document that allows a person aged 21 and above, also known as a donor, to voluntarily appoint a donee or donees to make decisions and act on his behalf if he loses his mental capacity.

The siblings’ 89-year-old mother intervened in the legal dispute.

She not only refuted her daughter’s claims in court, but also said that her daughter was the cause of the disharmony in the home.

In a written judgment dismissing the daughter’s appeal, a High Court judge found no merit in her claim and questioned the point of the proceedings she brought.

“As far as anticlimaxes go, this may rank in the year’s top 10,” said Justice Choo Han Teck in a judgment on Friday.

Justice Choo noted that the daughter was not involved in the family company, was content to leave the management of her father’s legal and financial affairs to her brother, and stood to gain nothing from her parents’ wills.

“What is the point of this appeal notwithstanding the abject absence of any merit in law or fact?” said the judge.

The daughter said all she wanted was to look after her father, but Justice Choo doubted that she was acting out of love.

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He noted that she had been living with her father, and could have looked after him if she wanted to do so.

The father is now physically and mentally frail and no longer able to recognise his daughter. He currently lives with his wife, son and two domestic workers.

He was a businessman who had a trading company that he named after his son and daughter – a reminder that there was once a happy family, added Justice Choo.

The son was granted 50,000 shares in the company, and the daughter 30,000 shares. She transferred her shares to her brother at one point.

The son later took over the management of the company and was made managing director in 2019.

On March 2, 2021, the daughter filed an application in the Family Courts for an order declaring that her father is incapable of managing his affairs, and that she be made a deputy to make decisions on his behalf in relation to his personal welfare and property.

She then discovered that her father had made an LPA on Jan 22, 2021, in favour of her brother as the donee.

She therefore filed another application to have her father declared mentally unfit when he executed the LPA and for the LPA to be revoked.

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This application was heard over four days and dismissed by a district judge, who also ordered the daughter to pay legal costs of $65,000 to her brother and $20,000 to her mother.

The daughter appealed.

Justice Choo upheld the lower court’s finding that there was no evidence that the son had defrauded or unduly influenced the father to make the LPA.

The unequivocal evidence of the psychiatrist who certified that the father was sufficiently sound to make an LPA was not impugned despite being subject to intense cross-examination, he said.

Justice Choo added that the psychiatrist was aware that the father, who was then 93, had difficulty recalling names and was slow in making arithmetic calculations.

However, the psychiatrist was nonetheless professionally satisfied that the father was fit to make the LPA. 

The daughter submitted video recordings of her brother behaving aggressively towards her, but the judge said this was just evidence of the siblings’ broken relationship, not proof of fraud or undue influence.

Justice Choo also upheld the lower court’s orders on costs. He ordered the daughter to pay further costs for the appeal – $12,000 to her brother and $5,000 to her mother.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.