Woman in flat tussle scraps PPO bid against brother

She went to court looking for a personal protection order (PPO) against her brother.

Instead, Madam Yvonne Goh Mei Ling withdrew the application on Tuesday and paid her brother $2,000 in costs after their 92-year-old mother was hospitalised for a chest infection on Monday morning.

Madam Goh, 63, told The Straits Times on Tuesday: "My mother was very frail when I saw her in hospital. She had been pleading with me to withdraw the PPO. And I decided to do so in the best interest of my sick mother."

The siblings' late father, Mr Dennis Goh Chin Chye, who died on March 5 at the age of 94, was a pioneer of the scouts movement.

After his death, the family got into a dispute over a five-room Housing Board flat.

In the High Court trial which ended last month and is still awaiting judgment, his widow, Madam Eileen Chia Yoke Mui, claimed she was misled into making Madam Goh and her younger sister, Yvette Goh Meich'ang, 52, joint owners of the flat in 2010. The daughters contend it was a gift from their parents.

In April, Madam Goh applied for a PPO against the elder of her two brothers, Mr Eric Goh Wai Mun, 69. She claimed he tried to head- butt her when she took their father to hospital weeks before he died.

Along with withdrawing the application on Tuesday, Madam Goh agreed to pay her brother a token sum. "I consider the complainant's unconditional withdrawal of the PPO suit with costs as a complete vindication of what I have always regarded as baseless allegations," Mr Goh said in a statement.

joycel@sph.com.sg

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