Woman with S$8.8m takes bank to court

www.channelnewsasia.com

By Zul Othman, TODAY | Posted: 26 January 2010 0827 hrs

SINGAPORE: An elderly woman took OCBC Bank to court on Monday because the latter refused to allow her to close her account containing S$8.8 million.

The bank rejected 94-year-old Madam Hwang Cheng Tsu Hsu's repeated requests as it had doubts on her mental capacity.

The dispute started on 12 May 2008, when Madam Hwang and her adopted daughter, Madam Amy Hsu, 45, applied to open a joint account.

The bank said "no" but gave no explanation, the women claimed.

On Monday, the bank's lawyers Adrian Wong and Jansen Chow told the High Court that their client was simply fulfilling its "legal as well as moral duty owed to an elderly customer, with whom (it has) enjoyed a long standing relationship". "It was only after Amy came into the picture in May 2008 that things took a drastic turn for the worse," they said.

Court documents said OCBC became uncomfortable because the younger woman was giving the instructions, not Madam Hwang. During a separate interview, Madam Hwang was also unable to lucidly explain why she was at the bank.

Even though the elderly woman had granted Madam Hsu the power of attorney, OCBC's lawyers said "this is but a red herring as ... such powers executed by a person of mental incapacity or subsequent incapacity is invalid".

However, Madam Hwang's lawyers Adrian Ee and Senior Counsel Michael Khoo countered that the bank's officers who had interviewed Madam Hwang were "incompetent" to have come to this conclusion based on two brief interviews. None of them were "qualified as psychiatrists".

Her lawyers produced two witnesses on Monday.

Dr Sitoh Eyih Yiow, who treated Madam Hwang in the last 18 months, told the court that, while her dementia has been more pronounced in recent months due to other conditions, her mental state will improve as her health gets better.

Another psychiatrist, Dr Lim Hsin Low, testified that he had examined her and found that she had the mental capacity to draw up a will.

The trial, which continues on Tuesday, is expected to run till February 12.