It wasn’t too long ago that a lawsuit here in Singapore caught the interest of many readers. That court case was in February last year and revolved around a woman’s suit against a Catholic Church here, claiming damages over an exorcism trial. The suit was thrown out of the court after a two year trial with the woman, ironically, ordered to pay costs.
There’s a new case that started the other week that has generated interest and discussion online. This time it’s about a 94 year old woman suffering from dementia, her adopted daughter, and a $8.9 million fortune sitting in a bank account. The way I understand it: the bank in question was suspicious whether recent transactions was indeed made with the old lady in full cognizance or under the influence of her adopted daughter. When the bank declined on the adopted daughter’s request to close the account with the old lady unable to say why she herself was at the bank, the daughter then took the bank to court.
The recent turn of news sure is revealing a lot of details that, to me anyway, isn’t painting the 45 year old adopted daughter in a very good light. For instance, in yesterday’s news, it was revealed that she’d applied for the court to order the bank to release $18,000 every month for expenses. The lady protested that this was the old woman’s decision to pay for all her expenses, to which the defense lawyer replied why would a 94 year old need $1,000 for monthly restaurant outings; $1,000 for toiletries, clothing, beauty grooming and wellness, as well as $3,000 for entertainment and holidays.
I’m not fully clear about how powers of attorney in bank accounts work, though I don’t at least think it’s some sort of carte blanche to do whatever you like, especially if it can be contested in a court of law whether the decisions you are making even with the power of attorney are not in the best interests of the client.
Either way, $18,000 a month sure is a lot of money. That’s nearly twice Ling and my combined incomes. With $18,000, I could buy a Nikon D3X with a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 and a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8, decked with a SB-900, an entire range of premium B+W filters, a tower-sized dry cabinet… etc… and that’s just for the first month…!
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