Late businessman's daughter sues woman, 39, for getting over S$1.7 million from him, S'pore court dismisses case & awards S$209,856 in legal costs to woman - Mothership

The judge accepted that the woman was a "devoted caregiver" to the man.

A civil suit against a 39-year-old woman by a late businessman's daughter for taking more than S$1.7 million from him has been dismissed after a High Court judge found that the monies were gifted voluntarily.

Chew Yam Song Peter, who ran the seafood wholesale business Evergreen Seafood, passed away in September 2024 at the age of 73.

His daughter, Chew Boon Fong Angela, who is the executor of his estate, later sued the woman, Sun Beibei, for breach of fiduciary duty and sought to recover S$1,711,000.

According to court transcripts seen by Mothership, Justice Philip Jeyaretnam accepted the defence's argument that the man had wanted to provide for Sun following the deterioration of his cancer.

He noted that Sun came to be the man's primary caregiver as she had been in a romantic relationship with him for a considerable length of time, a fact the defence said was an "open secret" and known by his family.

The point of contestation in the case was S$1.625 million given in the form of signed cheques and a cashier's order, as well as S$86,000 in cash withdrawals made using his bank cards at the elder Chew's instructions.

While the plaintiff side has argued that there was little or no independent corroboration of Sun's testimony of such instructions, the judge noted that six other witnesses had corroborated Sun's case.

Sun was ultimately awarded S$182,500 in legal costs plus nine per cent GST after the case against her was dismissed.

She was also given disbursements agreed at S$10,931.91.

Chew was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer in December 2022 and was later told he had less than six months to live after the cancer spread to his pancreas and lungs.

Chew's daughter alleged that while Chew was seriously ill between June and September 2024, Sun withdrew and transferred more than S$1.7 million from his bank accounts without his authorisation.

The family argued that Chew was too weak to have made the withdrawals himself and pointed to a will in which he left his savings to his wife and daughter.

The family also alleged that Sun deleted her text message history with Chew after his funeral and admitted to making the withdrawals but did not clearly explain where the money went.

The plaintiff, Chew Boon Fong, Angela, was represented by lawyer Nicholas Narayanan at the closing submissions on Sep. 30.

Narayanan argued that Sun's case ultimately rests on "a series of alleged oral instructions" said to have been given by Chew, with little or no independent corroboration.

Sun denied the allegations, maintaining that the money was voluntarily given to her by Chew so she would be financially secure after his death.

She also said Chew instructed her to fill in the cheques and, on one occasion, asked her to guide his hand as he signed one.

Two months after Chew's death, Sun used some of the money to purchase an apartment, which she has since rented out.

Sun was represented by Lim Kim Hong, Nadiah Li Feng Binte Mahmood and Maximilian Tay from law firm KIM & CO.

In her closing submissions, Lim argued that there was no evidence to show that Sun had "unduly influenced" the late Chew.

Pointing to testimonies from six other witnesses that demonstrated Chew's desire to provide financial security for Sun, Lim said that this is not a case that the defendant withdrew monies from Chew's account without his knowledge and concealed them.

"This is a woman; she's actually a very simple woman who lived with Peter Chew as his long-term romantic partner, who sacrificed 10 years of the prime of her life without any expectation of reward, in cash or in kind. She cared for him throughout the 10 years and also throughout his terminal illness until his passing," Lim said.

The elder Chew had feared that upon his death Sun would lose her job and would be terminated, and that fear materialised, Lim said.

The company Evergreen Seafood was left to the plaintiff, younger Chew, who terminated Sun from her role as director in the company following the elder Chew's death.

Lim further explained that the property Sun bought was not a "windfall" but rather a home that the elder Chew intended her to have.

She is now renting out the property to sustain herself, Lim said, adding that it is now "all that stands between her and financial ruin".

Narayanan responded to Lim's submission, saying Sun is not a "damsel in distress character" Lim sought to portray.

He pointed to various assets disclosed by Sun, including a property in China, several bank accounts, as well as cash in her hand.

To this, Lim said that Sun had about S$336,741 combined, excluding the property, which is now "all gone".

She had earlier explained that the balance monies that Chew had given Sun had gone into paying for legal costs.

In his judgment, Jeyaretnam said the key issue was whether Chew had gifted Sun the money transferred by cheques and a cashier’s order, and withdrawn from ATMs on his alleged instructions.

He said that there is "no doubt" about Chew's mental capacity, noting that he made a will on Aug. 15, 2024 in which he gave his shares in his company, Evergreen Seafood, to his daughter, Angela Chew.

Jeyaretnam said Chew also confirmed his earlier gift of a residential property to his wife in the same will.

The judge also found no evidence that Sun exercised any undue influence over Chew.

"Mr Chew was not isolated from his family or friends. Even when physically frail, he appears to have remained emotionally resilient and self-willed," Jeyaretnam said.

He also accepted that evidence shows that Sun was a devoted caregiver who "shouldered the burden of caregiving, at times virtually single-handedly".

"These facts already provide a reason for why Mr Chew could reasonably have wanted to provide for her after his death," he said.

Sun's own evidence of what Chew said to her and his friends was corroborated by the testimony of six other witnesses, the judge added.

One witness surnamed Lew, a friend of Chew, testified that in or around June 2024, Chew told him that Sun was alone in Singapore and did not have a place to call her own.

Chew had expressed the fear that if her employment were terminated by Evergreen Seafood, she would no longer have any income and would not have anywhere to live, the judge noted.

Lew also testified in court that Chew had said he was thinking of buying a property in Singapore, as well as gifting Sun some monies to support her financially.

This was also corroborated by Yeo Inn Siang, the property agent who testified that Chew told her he would support the purchase of a property and that his budget was S$1.4 million.

She also testified that she told him any loan amount that Sun could obtain would be quite little, and also showed WhatsApp messages between her and Chew that were consistent with her evidence.

Jeyaretnam also noted that Chew made "separate and sufficient provision" for his wife and daughter.

"This also supports the reasonableness, and therefore the likelihood, that Mr Chew would make gifts to Ms Sun, given her care for him," he said.