http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...house-20120828
Brother sued over $8m house
Sisters say the property should be included as part of late mother's assets
Published on Aug 28, 2012
The house in Robin Walk was bought in 1974 for $260,000 and registered in Mr Chng Eng Chye’s name. But a trust deed states that he was holding the property in trust for his mother. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM
By Selina Lum
TWO sisters have sued their older brother in order to include an $8 million house off Stevens Road in the pool of assets left behind by their late mother.
The two-storey house in Robin Walk is registered in the sole name of Mr Chng Eng Chye, the second child and eldest son among six siblings.
At the centre of the dispute is a trust deed which states that Mr Chng, 60, was holding the property in trust for their mother, Madam Fock Poh Kum, who died at the age of 80 in November 2009.
Madam Chng Bee Kheng, 58, and Madam Chng Bee Hong, 55, are suing in their capacity as executors and trustees of their mother's estate.
The sisters, represented by Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo, want the court to order that their brother transfer the house to them.
Mr Chng insists the property is his, even though he admits to signing the trust deed around the time the house was bought in 1974 for $260,000.
Represented by Senior Counsel Cavinder Bull, he now contends that the trust deed was a sham, created to protect the property against potential creditors should the family business fail in his hands.
A five-day hearing started yesterday.
According to Mr Chng, he bought the property "with financial help" from his father, Mr Chng Gim Cheng, and paid for its upkeep over the years.
But his sisters contend that all, if not a substantial part, of the purchase price was paid by their father, considering that their brother was only 24 years old at the time and had just started working in the family business.
The trust deed was found by Bee Hong in a safe deposit box she held with their mother after the matriarch's death.
The sisters say they were advised by their lawyers that they had a duty to include the house as part of their mother's assets; their brother did not object to this at a meeting of beneficiaries in 2010, nor did he claim then to be the rightful owner of the property.
But he contends that if the house indeed belonged to their mother, it would have been her most significant asset. Yet, she made no mention of the house in her will. This, he says, indicates that she did not think the property was hers.
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