in 2025 awarded a share of the rent<\/span><\/a> collected by his mother over two decades on a Yishun coffee shop is no longer entitled to the millions, after his sisters won an appeal against the earlier court decision. <\/p>\nMr Tia Oon Lai, 70, who was registered as the co-owner of a 30-year lease on the HDB coffee shop with his mother, had sued his late mother\u2019s estate and two sisters in 2022 to claim a share of the rent.<\/p>\n
His eldest sister Sally, 75, and youngest sister Poh Kim, 63, had been handling their mother\u2019s finances since 2015. Madam Sally Tia was also sued as the estate\u2019s representative.<\/p>\n
He sought 50 per cent of the rent, which he claimed amounted to about $7 million, paid to his mother by foodcourt operator Koufu from October 1998 to June 2018. <\/p>\n
Mr Tia, the eldest son, and his mother, Madam Su Ye Chu, became registered owners of Hiap Hoe Eating House in May 1997, after his father withdrew from the business following a stroke. <\/p>\n
Madam Su, who had five other children, was in her early 90s when she died in October 2021. <\/p>\n
In June 2025, the High Court rejected Mr Tia\u2019s claim for 50 per cent, but found that he was entitled to a 37.65 per cent share.<\/p>\n
The two sisters, who were separately represented by Mr Nichol Yeo and Mr Colin Seow, appealed. Their position was that rent solely belonged to Madam Su and now her estate. <\/p>\n
On May 5, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 ruling, overturned the lower court decision.<\/p>\n
The majority, comprising Justice Woo Bih Li and Justice Debbie Ong, found that Madam Su fully owned the rental income from the coffee shop in the period under dispute.<\/p>\n
The two judges said the totality of the evidence supports the inference that Madam Su and Mr Tia mutually intended, at the time the lease was acquired, for her to be the sole beneficial owner of the lease. <\/p>\n
A\u00a0beneficial\u00a0owner\u00a0is a person who has the right to benefit from an asset, even if another person is the registered\u00a0owner.<\/p>\n
The majority said the evidence showed that the Madam Su had a consistent and significant role in the coffee shop affairs, whereas Mr Tia\u2019s involvement was minimal and sporadic at best.<\/p>\n
No objective record was offered of any communication to support Mr Tia\u2019s evidence that his mother had assured him that she was safeguarding his share of the rent.<\/p>\n
The majority also noted that when Madam Su stated in a 2015 letter that all the rental income from the coffee shop belonged to her.<\/p>\n
Mr Tia did not question her claim even though he was present at the meeting where the letter, addressed \u201cto whom it may concern\u201d was read out and signed.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Madam Su, Mr Tia and Koufu entered into an agreement in which the foodcourt operator agreed to pay the rent separately to the two of them in equal shares. <\/p>\n
Since then, the rent has been paid separately to Mr Tia and Madam Su, and following her death, to her estate.<\/p>\n
Mr Tia\u2019s inaction in pursuing a share of the previous rent after the agreement was signed \u201cstrongly suggests\u201d that he did not believe that he was entitled to it, said the judges. <\/p>\n
The majority noted that he filed his lawsuit after the death of his mother, which placed the defendants at a significant disadvantage as Madam Su was no longer available to testify.<\/p>\n
The majority added that Madam Su made all the arrangements for the financing for acquiring the lease, made cash payments using her own funds, and paid the income tax on the full amount of the rent.<\/p>\n
The dissenting judge, Justice Kannan Ramesh, said the evidence leaned towards the conclusion that the common intention between Madam Su and Mr Tia was for the beneficial ownership of the lease to be held by them in equal shares as tenants-in-common.<\/p>\n
Tenancy-in-common is a form of property ownership where each co-owner has a distinct share, not necessarily an equal one, which does not automatically pass to the other co-owner upon death.<\/p>\n
Justice Ramesh said limited weight should be placed on the 2015 letter as the circumstances surrounding its writing were unclear. <\/p>\n
He added that the rental-splitting agreement applied only from the time of July 2018 onwards, and that her estate had failed to prove the existence of a common intention that Madam Su was the sole beneficial owner of the lease. <\/p>\n
He noted that when Mr Tia\u2019s father decided to withdraw from the business in 1997, Madam Su did not take over as sole proprietor of Hiap Hoe.<\/p>\n
Instead, the business was reconstituted as a partnership of Madam Su and Mr Tia.<\/p>\n
Justice Ramesh said the admission of Madam Su and Mr Tia as partners was a deliberate and considered decision. <\/p>\n
He added that the contents of the wills made by Madam Su, one in 2015 and the final will in 2019, further supported the conclusion that there was no common intention that she would be the full beneficial owner of the lease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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