Judge voids sham marriage after mum of dead man sues his Vietnamese 'wife'

Flat was in his sole name, so mum, 74, living there couldn't deal with his assets

- Selina Lum

After a man died in 2017, leaving behind a Housing Board flat in his sole name, his 74-year-old mother, who lived in the property, could not apply for letters of administration to deal with his assets.

This was because the 45-year-old unemployed man was legally married to a Vietnamese woman who apparently went missing shortly after the marriage was registered in 2013.

In 2022, Madam Kee Cheong Keng, who works as a cleaner, sued the Vietnamese woman, Ms Dinh Thi Thu Hien, seeking a declaration that the marriage was a sham.

Madam Kee, who was represented by Mr Sunil Singh Panoo, asked the court to void the marriage, which would pave the way for the letters of administration to be granted to her.

She also engaged a lawyer in Vietnam to serve court papers on Ms Hien, and published an advertisement in a Vietnamese newspaper, but the younger woman did not respond.

On Feb 28, a High Court judge found that the marriage was not genuine and declared it void.

In a written judgment, Justice Choo Han Teck noted that Madam Kee's son had died more than seven years ago and his "wife" was nowhere to be found.