VEG v VEF

Case Significance

VEG v VEF [2024] SGHCF 14 was decided in the General Division of the High Court (Family Division) on 22 February 2024, with judgment reserved and delivered by Choo Han Teck J after hearings on 26 January and 5 February 2024 in District Court Appeal No 68 of 2023. The case concerned the variation of consent orders and the maintenance of a child. According to the judgment, the parties married on 22 October 2006 and had one daughter, turning 17 that year. Interim judgment was granted on 8 October 2012, with ancillary matters dealt with on an uncontested basis, and the court order was later varied by consent on 21 October 2021. The respondent wife then applied in FC/SUM 695 of 2023 to vary the order regarding the daughter's maintenance payable by the appellant husband, and the District Judge allowed the application in part. The appellant husband appealed against that decision. The judgment records that the appellant works as a consultant in Saudi Arabia earning $16,690 a month, while the respondent is a freelance consultant in the Food and Beverage industry without a fixed monthly income but said to earn an average of $4,000 a month, which the District Judge accepted based on bank and CPF statements and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's confirmation that there were no Notices of Assessment for the respondent in the past three years. Counsel for the appellant, Mr Leonard Loh of Selvam LLC, submitted that the respondent did not provide full and frank disclosure of her income documents.