Harry Elias Partnership LLP acts in pivotal divorce case allowing CPF monies owed to be withdrawn before the age of 55

Partner Koh Tien Hua acted in a pivotal divorce case successfully getting monies awarded to a divorcee to be paid out from her husband’s CPF account in advance despite restrictions imposed by the CPF Act then.

Mr Koh acted for the Wife, a former vice-president of a bank. On 24 November 2006, the Wife was awarded by the court, among other things, S$110,000 from the Husband’s CPF account. Accordingly, a charge was imposed on the Husband’s CPF account restraining him from touching the said sum of S$110,000 in his CPF account until he attained 55 years of age and whereupon, this money would be released to the wife. 

The CPF Act was amended in 2007 to allow, in a divorce, a direct transfer of monies from the Husband’s CPF account to the Wife’s CPF account. The wife applied to vary the Order of Court to allow a transfer of S$110,000 from the Husband’s CPF account to the Wife’s CPF account instead of waiting to receive the money until he turned 55 years old. The husband objected to the application on the ground that the Amendments to the CPF Act were not intended to be applied retrospectively to Orders made prior to the amendments to the CPF Act being made. 

After arguments, the Court agreed with the Wife and allowed the variation and for the moneys to be transferred from the husband’s CPF account to the wife’s CPF account. 

This appears to be the first written court decision on the application of the amendments to the CPF Act to orders made prior to the amendments being enacted as law.

“The law’s purpose is to do what is right. The spirit of the amendment is to cater as quickly as possible, for the financial needs of divorcing, or divorced parties. This need is especially pressing, where the party entitled, as in the case here, is also catering for the daily needs of young children”, said district judge Shoba Nair, in her grounds of decision.

The case was reported in Lianhe Zaobao.