Re: Yang Yin : "Money, I love you!"
Mdm Hedy Mok,niece of Mdm Chung Khin Chun, with her lawyer Raghunath Peter Doraisamy (centre) and Mdm Chung's lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam (right) during a press conference
SINGAPORE — A wealthy widow with dementia, whose financial assets are at the centre of a high-profile tussle between her niece and a male China tour guide, moved yesterday to revoke a legal document that allows him to make decisions on her behalf in the event of lost mental capacity.
Madam Chung Khin Chun, 87, submitted papers to the Office of the Public Guardian to revoke the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) with the help of her lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, who was appointed yesterday.
He said a medical report certifying that Mdm Chung has the capacity to make certain decisions — including revoking the LPA — was released late last week.
Also known as Kathleen, Mdm Chung was diagnosed with dementia earlier this year. Her assets include a S$30 million bungalow in Seletar Hills that the tour guide Yang Yin moved into five years ago.
Mdm Chung met him in China in 2008 and appointed him as her proxy decision-maker under the LPA in 2012.
Her niece, Mdm Hedy Mok, has gone to the State Courts to get the LPA revoked and is applying to be Mdm Chung’s deputy — an appointment made by the court that will entitle her to make certain decisions on her aunt’s behalf.
It emerged yesterday that Mdm Mok had also filed a High Court lawsuit against Mr Yang, 40, for loss and damages arising from his alleged breach of duties under the LPA.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mdm Mok said she would act according to her aunt’s wishes should she be appointed a deputy. If her aunt wished for all her assets to be given to charity, “it will happen”, said Mdm Mok, 60.
“I’m doing this for the sole purpose of protecting my aunt’s interest … She has gone through plenty through the years that Yang has been here, so we are trying to change all that.”
Explaining why she “came into the picture pretty late”, Mdm Mok, who owns a travel agency, said she had approached her aunt a few years ago.
“I’ve tried many times to approach her to warn her about her China friend, but I never got a chance to see him.
He was always hiding and she was quite protective as well.”
Mdm Mok said she visited her aunt monthly — “not as regularly as one is supposed to” — because she travelled a lot.
Her lawyer Peter Doraisamy said the damages being claimed under the lawsuit against Mr Yang had not been quantified. Even if the Office of the Public Guardian allows Mdm Chung’s LPA to be revoked before Mdm Mok’s court application is heard by the State Courts, “we’ll still continue with those proceedings”, said Mr Doraisamy.
“There could well be a challenge to that revocation. So we think, since the matter is already before the courts, let the courts decide,” he added.
Asked what action was being taken on Mdm Chung’s will — made in 2010 in a move that bequeathed her bungalow and its contents to Mr Yang — Mr Doraisamy said the matter is currently confidential.
Mdm Chung has been staying with her niece since Aug 21 and Mdm Mok said: “She’s very well now, very well taken care of.”