YY Lee & Associates Successfully Won a Court of Appeal Decision: CLC v CLB [2023] SGCA 10 YY Lee & Associates 成功赢得上诉法院的判决

On 3 March 2023, our lawyers at YY Lee & Associates successfully acted for a wife and won a Court of Appeal case.

We were particularly pleased for our client whom we represented from the outset four years ago when her ex-husband commenced divorce proceedings. Spanning four courts: the Family Justice Courts, Family Court (High Court Division), Appellate Division of the High Court (AD), and the Court of Appeal (CA), we successfully argued that the ex-husband intended for his inheritance monies and pre-marital gifts to be shared with the ex-wife and family, and therefore should be included in the pool of matrimonial assets for division.

At first instance, the Family Court (High Court Division) agreed with us. However, the ex-husband appealed to the AD who ruled that all the ex-husband’s assets were inheritance monies and pre-marital gifts. The AD’s reasoned that given the ex-husband did not hold a job for most of the marriage therefore it was more likely than not that all his present-day assets were from his inheritance and pre-marital gifts. Hence, all his assets were excluded from division.

We assisted our client to first apply to the CA for leave to appeal, or permission to appeal. The CA granted our client leave to appeal and further posed two questions for the appeal. During the CA appeal, using contemporaneous messages in the form of emails and Whatsapp messages from the ex-husband to the ex-wife throughout the marriage, the CA agreed with us that the ex-husband “did demonstrate a clear and unambiguous intention to treat (his inheritance monies and pre-marital gifts) as part of the matrimonial pool“. The CA’s decision meant a majority of the Husband’s assets were to be included in the pool for division.

The case is reported as CLC v CLB [2023] SGCA 10. This case was also reported in the Straits Times on 16 March 2023.

2023 年 3 月 3 日，我们在 YY Lee & Associates 的律师成功代理妻子并赢得了上诉法院的案件。

我们为我们的客户感到特别高兴，四年前，当她的前夫开始离婚诉讼时，我们从一开始就代表她。跨越四个
法院：家庭司法法院、家庭法院（高等法院分庭）、高等法院上诉分庭（AD）和上诉法院（CA），我们成功
地争辩说，前夫打算将他的继承款和婚前赠与要与前妻及家人共同分享，因此应纳入夫妻共同财产池进行分
割。

一审时，家事法庭（高等法院）同意我们的意见。但前夫上诉至AD，AD裁定前夫的所有财产均为遗产及婚前
赠与。 AD 的理由是，鉴于前夫在婚姻的大部分时间里都没有工作，因此他目前的所有资产很可能来自他的
遗产和婚前礼物。因此，他的所有资产都被排除在分割之外。

我们协助我们的客户首先向 CA 申请上诉许可或上诉许可。 CA 准许我们的客户上诉，并进一步为上诉提出
了两个问题。在 CA 上诉期间，在整个婚姻过程中，CA 使用前夫向前妻发送的电子邮件和 Whatsapp 消息
形式的同步消息，CA 同意我们的观点，即前夫“确实表现出明确和明确的意图对待（他的遗产和婚前礼物）
作为婚姻财产的一部分”。 CA 的决定意味着丈夫的大部分资产将被纳入分割池。

该案件被报道为 CLC v CLB [2023] SGCA 10。2023 年 3 月 16 日，海峡时报也报道了该案件。