20/03/2025
A Mother's Fight Against a Ghost Marriage 👻💔
Imagine discovering that your late son's "wife" was nothing more than a phantom – a woman he married for money, who vanished without a trace.
This is the strange story that unfolded in a Singapore courtroom, pitting a 74-year-old cleaner against an invisible adversary.
Kee Cheong Keng v Dinh Thi Thu Hien
🔗 Case Link: https://www.elitigation.sg/gd/s/2025_SGHCF_15
In 2013, a Singaporean man made a startling confession to his family: he had entered into a sham marriage with a Vietnamese woman.
💰 The deal? He'd get paid, and she'd get a shot at residency.
But soon after saying "I do," the bride disappeared, along with the promised payments.
⏩ Fast forward to today…
The man has passed away, leaving behind a valuable HDB flat.
🏠 His mother, now in her 70s and working as a cleaner, finds herself in an impossible situation. She can't inherit her son's property because, on paper, he has a wife – a wife no one has ever seen.
⚖️ Legal Dilemma:
When a married person passes away, his/her property is inherited by the spouse (if there are no kids). If there are no kids but there is a spouse and a parent, the spouse will get 1/2 and the parent will get 1/2.
But, in this case, the spouse couldn't be located and the marriage appeared to be a sham.
🔍 The mother's legal team pieced together evidence about the marriage:
Family members had never met the "wife" 👀
No wedding photos or celebration 📸🚫
A suspiciously empty home 🏚️
A Vietnamese lawyer was hired to track down the elusive bride, but that search was futile.
⚖️ The Judge's Legal Tightrope:
The court faced a complex legal challenge.
📜 Section 11A of the Women's Charter came into effect on 1 October 2016, explicitly voiding marriages of convenience.
🤔 The current marriage was clearly a sham, but it was solemnized before this provision came into effect. There was no equivalent provision under the old law.
💡 The Legal Solution:
The judge found a way by invoking Section 105(a) read with Section 13(a) of the Women's Charter, which voids marriages solemnized without a valid license.
🚨 The court reasoned that the couple had submitted false declarations when obtaining their marriage license, thus rendering it invalid.
✅ Victory for the Mother:
In the end, the mother won the case and is now entitled to her son's estate.
