GEIS-新闻详情

High Court revokes LPA, says woman signed under 'undue pressure' from doctor son

2021-07-07 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE - A general practitioner, who nursed grievances against his parents for forcing him to study medicine, took his mother to sign a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) five days after learning of his father's plans to do so.

At a psychiatrist's clinic in June 2015, the woman, then 58 and suffering from dementia, appointed her only son as her donee, giving him the power to make decisions and act on her behalf if she loses mental capacity.

However, a High Court judge on Tuesday (July 6) allowed an appeal by the woman's husband and two daughters to revoke the LPA.

In a written judgment, Justice Choo Han Teck concluded that while the woman had the mental capacity at the time to execute the LPA, she had probably done so under undue pressure from her son.

As the woman now lacks mental capacity, the judge said the family should apply for a deputy to be appointed under the Mental Capacity Act.

If none of them are found to be suitable, a professional deputy may be appointed by the court.

In his judgment, Justice Choo considered the history of acrimony between the son and his family and text messages showing the heated disputes over who should care for the woman.

Justice Choo expressed doubts about the son's claims that he had reconciled with his mother in 2014, especially when she was showing signs of cognitive impairment. He also found it odd that the son insisted on caring for his mother at this juncture.

The judge said the son's rush to execute the LPA seemed to be motivated by animosity towards his family, and suggests that he had pressured his mother into her decision.

The judge added that when the son told his mother he would have to "leave without her" if she did not tell the psychiatrist she wanted him to care for her, the woman would have felt pressured to appoint him as her donee, lest she be left at the clinic.

The woman, now 64, and her husband, 65, are former Tamil-language teachers. Their son is 38 years old, while their two daughters are aged 34 and 28.

The parties were not named in the judgment.

Court documents reveal an acrimonious relationship between the man and his family.

The son stopped talking to both his parents at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011.

In a long, vitriolic e-mail in November 2012, he blamed his father for preventing him from studying liberal arts overseas, and making him study medicine at a "third rate" local university instead.