At The Courts Woman Fails In Appeal For Spousal Support; Gets $1 A Month In Maintenance

She will continue to get nominal sum; ex-spouse's share of marital assets cut by 10%

- Theresa Tan

A High Court judge dismissed a woman's appeal for spousal maintenance of $2,500 a month, but also reduced her former husband's share of marital assets by 10 per cent, given his multiple attempts to undermine the marriage and the woman's welfare.

The 39-year-old woman, an administrative assistant who takes home $2,340 a month, will continue to get a nominal maintenance of $1 a month, which was earlier awarded by a district judge.

The $1 is a symbolic sum which preserves her right to apply for monetary support from her former husband in the future, lawyers told The Straits Times.

The woman, who filed for divorce in 2023, was married to a 46-year-old regular serviceman in the Singapore Armed Forces whose net salary is $5,212 a month. The couple has joint custody of their 12-year-old daughter, but the girl lives with the father.

In his judgment on May 7, Justice Choo Han Teck awarded the woman 25 per cent of the matrimonial flat, up from 20 per cent the district judge gave her earlier. She also gets over $52,000 as her share of the other assets.

Justice Choo also agreed with the district judge's decision not to award the woman a larger sum of spousal maintenance.

The district judge had said the woman is working and can support herself, and she received a fair share of the marital assets. Besides, the amount she has to contribute to their child's maintenance — $327 a month — is not high.

But the district judge had also noted that the woman is a foreigner who moved to Singapore for marriage and lacked family support here, and hence chose to preserve her right to nominal maintenance of $1 a month for a transitional period of four years.