When a dual-income, no-kids couple fight over $2.3m in cash

Man tries but fails to deny ex-wife share of commission earned for brokering a company takeover

- Tan Ooi Boon

There's usually plenty of money to fight over when Dinks – dual income, no kids – couples split up, but a Singapore pair took that to a new level when they fought over even the $15,000 spent on their pampered dogs.

The dog fight was just a sideshow; the real battle was over savings in excess of $2 million.

The conflict – sadly all too common among divorcing spouses, no matter what money is at stake – became a sort of legal benchmark because it is rare for the High Court to hear cases involving such couples, especially when large sums of cash are involved.

Their occupations were not disclosed in the court ruling, but all attention was on the $2.8 million in sales commission the husband earned for brokering the takeover of a company.

That sum alone, which attracted income tax of over $500,000, dwarfed all other assets they owned during their relatively short union of about eight years.

The couple, who lived with the husband's parents, had other combined assets of about $900,000, which included a $132,000 net gain from the sale of their HDB flat.

They had married in 2011, but barely a year after that, there were signs that not all was well, with allegations of infidelity and a general drifting apart.

In 2020, the wife moved out and, in 2022, they filed for divorce.

During the hearing for the division of assets, the Family Justice Court looked only at the couple's financial contributions, as they did not have any children.

The husband had close to $3 million in his name while his ex-wife's assets amounted to $213,000, so the division ratio was about 93 to 7 in the husband's favour.

When the case came before High Court Judge Mohamed Faizal, he saw no reason to adjust this ruling.

But he noted that even in the case of a childless marriage, a spouse's indirect contribution must still be considered, otherwise the efforts in caring for each other would be rendered "worthless".