HE TOOK on a second wife, who bore him a daughter.

Businessman Soo Wei Cheang, a Malaysian, divided his time between the two families in Malaysia.

The relationship between his two wives were cordial and they attended church and other functions together.

But all that changed after his death in 2003.

His first wife turned hostile and ill-treated his second wife, who committed suicide last year.

Soon after, the second wife’s daughter, Ms Soo Yen Sun, 26, went to the High Court here to lay claim on $360,000 in an OCBC joint account that was opened in Singapore by her father.

He had opened the account 10 years ago, with Ms Soo and her mother as the other two account holders.

Ms Soo’s half-brother, Mr Soo Kam Chun, filed a counterclaim for the money.

He is the administrator of the patriarch’s estate.

Ruling in Ms Soo’s favour, Justice Woo Bih Li said in his judgment that when the patriach was alive, the cordial relationship between both wives was merely a “veneer”.

Mr Soo is appealing against the decision.

His father married his first wife in 1959 and 22 years later, in 1981, he met Ms Soo’s mother and went through a customary marriage with her.

Ms Soo was born two years later.

In her affidavit, she said that her father spent his mornings with his first wife and in the afternoons, he would be with her and her mother.

She added that he stayed overnight at their place from Mondays to Saturdays.

At times, Ms Soo and her mother would pick him up from the home of his first wife, with whom he had three daughters and a son.

When they did so, his first wife would pack food for them to take home.

Ms Soo also said the two families attended church and dinner functions together.

Then on 22 Feb 2003, her father died without leaving a will.

According to Ms Soo, she and her mother were not allowed to attend his funeral.

The first wife cut them off completely and forbade them to visit her.

Ms Soo said that her mother missed her father very much and was emotionally distressed.

As a result of the ill-treatment from the first wife and her family, her mother’s condition worsened and she committed suicide in April last year.

Ms Soo said her father had always looked after her mother and her and treated them as his wife and daughter.

Once or twice a year, Ms Soo and her mother would accompany her father to Singapore and he would pay for their shopping.

Sometimes, her mother would withdraw a large amount of money from the account in question before returning to Malaysia.

She pointed out that her father must have agreed to these withdrawals since he was a mandatory signatory.

But Mr Soo said the money was meant for his father’s use.

He also claimed that his father had used it to help him in his express bus transportation business.

However, Justice Woo said it was clear that the patriarch had included Ms Soo as an account holder so that the money would benefit his second family.

This was further reinforced by the fact that her half-brother and the rest of his family were unaware of this OCBC account until Ms Soo disclosed it during her claim.

As the administrator of his father’s estate, Mr Soo had not included the OCBC account in the list of Singapore assets of the patriarch.

In his judgment, Justice Woo said that by all accounts, the patriarch was a wealthy man who had left all his other assets to his first family.

“Unfortunately, the cordial relationship which I find to have prevailed between the two families when the patriarch was alive was a veneer,” he said.

“Hence the ill-treatment subsequently and this challenge to Ms Soo’s claim in the face of obvious facts supporting her claim.”

This article was first published in The New Paper.