Singaporean lawyer seeks $290k from ex-boyfriend
SINGAPORE — A soured relationship, which included assault claims, has led a lawyer to seek nearly $290,000 in damages and medical costs from her ex-boyfriend.
He, in turn, has countered that she had sought $1.8 million from him to settle the matter privately, without involving the police.
Geraldine Ong, 28, claimed in court papers that Lim Kwang Wei, 31, hit her three times in 2012, causing her injuries that required outpatient treatment.
Lim, a bank associate, denied these claims. Besides saying she wanted money, he also wants her to return $36,848 of his, according to defence papers filed by his Drew & Napier lawyer, Wendell Wong.
Lim said the money was given to Ong on the understanding that she would repay him.
The issue before the High Court is whether her claims, if supported by the evidence, were excessive.
Ong, in court documents filed by lawyer Suresh Damodara of Damodara Hazra LLP, claimed that Lim hit her when she stayed overnight at his parents’ house in July 2012. She saed he assaulted her again about 17 hours later when she returned to the house and later received outpatient treatment for bruises and a minor head injury.
A more serious attack was said to have taken place when she was driving him in his car along the Kallang- Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) towards Tuas, after picking him up at Marina Bay Sands on Oct 6, 2012, at about 3 a.m.
Ong claimed he struck her in the face, body and arms and continued to hit her after the car stopped, and that she later collapsed.
On the other hand, Lim claimed that she had fainted – as she did at least twice before when they quarrelled. Although the police and an ambulance had arrived, it was he who persuaded her to go to hospital, he said.
The 28-year old lawyer was treated at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and claimed that the bruises impaired hearing in her left ear and that she could not raise her left arm properly, among other things.
Ong wants $67,000 in medical costs and more than $221,000 in general damages for the injuries suffered.
Lim denied the alleged assault in his room in July 2012 and said they quarrelled that night after an earlier tiff and she had hit him.
He said she tried to stop him from leaving and he had used “reasonable force” to protect himself and to restrain her. He claimed the alleged second assault never happened as he was not at home.
He added that the couple had quarrelled while driving along the KPE tunnel and that he had got out of the car. She drove behind him and, at one point, he reached into the car through the front passenger window to tell her to stop trying to intercept him.
Instead, Lim accused her of hitting him and claimed he acted to protect himself. He said that later, after she was discharged from the hospital, she apologized and they reconciled.
He claimed that in January 2013, she asked for money to settle matters privately without police involvement. KS
