High Court rules against woman who sued mother for 50% stake in 26 Singapore properties

A woman who sued her 78-year-old mother, laying claim to a 50 per cent stake in 26 properties in Singapore, has lost her case in the High Court.

Ms Jenny Prawesti, 53, claimed that after the joint purchase of a unit at Centrepoint for $380,000 in 2002, her mother, Madam Sauw Tjiauw Koe, promised her that they would continue to buy properties together as equal owners in the future.

Following the purchase of the Centrepoint property, 25 other properties were bought in the names of Madam Sauw, Ms Prawesti or Ms Prawesti's younger brother, Mr Ronny Prananto.

Most of the properties were registered with Madam Sauw holding 90 per cent, Mr Prananto 9 per cent, and Ms Prawesti 1 per cent as tenants-in-common.

Madam Sauw denied making the alleged promise to Ms Prawesti.

She said her children were only her nominees and that she was the owner of all the properties bought in their names.

She said she told her children that she was merely "borrowing" their names for convenience to help her deal with third parties and to teach them about property investment.

Madam Sauw has also bought other properties jointly with Mr Prananto.

She alleged that Ms Prawesti sued her in retaliation as she had stopped helping her daughter pay her credit cards bills in 2021.

She contended in a counterclaim that her daughter's registered shares in the 26 properties were held on trust for her.

In a written judgment on Oct 23, Justice Hri Kumar Nair dismissed Ms Prawesti's claim and partly allowed Madam Sauw's counterclaim.

He found that they were joint tenants of the Centrepoint property but Madam Sauw was the owner of the other 25 properties.

The judge said Ms Prawesti had not proven that her mother made the alleged promise and that there was a common intention for her to be entitled to 50 per cent of all 26 properties.

He noted that Ms Prawesti did not assert the existence of the alleged promise until about a year and a half after she started court proceedings against Madam Sauw.

Justice Nair also noted that Ms Prawesti repeatedly implored Madam Sauw for help to pay her credit card bills from 2018 to 2020.

Despite having to sell her apartments in Australia, cars in Singapore, and personal items, Ms Prawesti did not once ask her mother for her purported share of rental and sale proceeds from the properties.

He said this was particularly telling, given that six of the properties were sold in late 2016 or 2017.

"If Jenny truly had a 50 per cent beneficial interest in the 26 properties, one would have expected her to ask for her share of the sale proceeds from these six properties instead of repeatedly asking (Madam Sauw) for handouts," said the judge.

He concluded that Madam Sauw was the beneficial owner of the 25 properties as she paid for them, apart from minor contributions from Ms Prawesti.

The judge said the parties understood that Madam Sauw alone would be solely responsible for the mortgages in respect of the 25 properties.

However, there was no such understanding regarding the Centrepoint property, for which the parties' financial contributions were almost evenly split.

He ordered Madam Sauw to repay more than $26,000 to her daughter for the younger woman's contributions to a unit at Golden Mile Complex and a unit at Hoa Nam Building in Bendemeer.

The judge also ordered Ms Prawesti to pay Madam Sauw the net rental proceeds she received from a unit at Hawaii Tower in Meyer Road, one of the 25 properties.

According to the judgment, Ms Prawesti testified during the trial that the family owned vast assets, including 50 other properties, an island and large estates in Indonesia.

Madam Sauw moved from Indonesia to Singapore around 1986 with her three young children.

Her husband, Mr Sugeng Prananto, remained in Indonesia - where he still lives - to run his business, and financially supported the family.

From 1987 to 2000, he purportedly gave Madam Sauw an allowance of about US$100,000 a month to maintain the family.

The sum increased to about US$47,000 a week from 2000 to 2020.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Madam Sauw started investing in properties in Singapore.

She bought nine properties in her sole name before buying the Centrepoint property in 2002.

In 2007, Ms Prawesti signed a power of attorney authorising Madam Sauw to act on her behalf in property purchases.

Madam Sauw then went on a buying spree, acquiring 20 properties that year alone.

In 2021, a dispute arose between the two of them.

Ms Prawesti, who was represented by Mr Edmund Kronenburg from Braddell Brothers, said they fell out because her mother surreptitiously used a power of attorney to sign collective sale agreements on her behalf.

But Madam Sauw, who was represented by Mr Adrian Wong from Rajah & Tann, said her cutting off financial support had caused Ms Prawesti to retaliate.