In a case that saw the roles of husband and wife being reversed, a man has sought a monthly alimony of $3,000 from his former wife, a 45-year-old IT manager.

According to Lianhe Wanbao, the 52-year-old man, who is an MBA-holder and used to work in a managerial position, gave up his job to look after their three sons, now aged 17 and two twins who are 11-years-old respectively.

The couple had mutually decided on their family arrangement while they were married, as he could not get along with the family's domestic helper then. The husband told the court that his ex-wife continued to work while he resigned in 1991 after the birth of their first child, to look after their family, as she was drawing a higher salary than him. He earned a monthly salary of $3,000 at the time he resigned.

They had sought for divorce on grounds of "unreasonable behaviour" three years ago and were granted a divorce in January this year. The couple had been married for the past 19 years.

According to the man, his ex-wife's last drawn salary in 2000 amounted to $12,177, which did not include additional job allowances. The judge had then ordered the ex-wife to pay a monthly maintence fee of $1,750 from September 2007, to the man and their three children, before divorce proceedings were finalised.

But the man claimed that his ex-wife stopped payment after half a year, and he had to reduce his and their sons' monthly expenditure of $3,000 to $1,900. The husband also revealed that his ex-wife has stopped mortgage payments for their house, and he and the children have had no choice but to find accomodation elsewhere when their property was repossessed and auctioned off by the bank.

The man also borrowed $30,000 from friends and relatives as a last resort, which led to him asking for a monthly maintenance fee of $3,000 or more from his ex-wife.

Ex-wife quit $12,000 a month job
According to court documents, the woman has not made any payment to her ex-husband since March 2008, and owes him a total of $30,1500. In reply, the woman claimed that she has resigned from her job and is unable to afford the maintenance fees. She also pointed out that her ex-husband has been unwilling to look for a job after the divorce.

However, her ex-husband revealed that she has since remarried and relocated to the US, and has a job as a real estate agent there.

The judge ruled that even though both parties claimed to be jobless, they were still responsible for finding jobs in order to look after the family. He ordered the ex-wife to continue with monthly payments of $1,750 for another 6 months to allow the ex-husband to find a job and adapt to the new situation, after which, both parties had to foot the bill for their sons equally, which amounts to $875.

Husband given $187,000 in division of marital assets
For his 15 years of "silent contribution" as a house-husband to the family, the judge also awarded the man a share in matrimonial assets amounting to $187,000 besides a monthly maintenance fee of $1,750, reported Lianhe Wanbao. The reason for awarding the man a larger share in assets was that he was taking care of the children for the last 15 years.

The fact that their children chose to live with their father after the divorce vouched for the man's singular efforts in raising and taking care of the children.

According to documents that were submitted in court, the couple had shared marital assets worth $740,000, which came from selling their two condominium units for $338,992 and $212,863 respectively. It also includes a trust fund from the ex-wife worth $115,239 and their combined CPF account totalling $73,579.

Also, as the ex-wife did not report the worth of their other assets truthfully, the judge decided to award the husband with 50 per cent of her trust fund.

The judge also stressed that the couple should put the welfare of their children first, even though they were fighting over the division of matrimonial assets. The judge awarded the divorced couple joint custody of the children, and the mother is allowed to visit them whenever she wished, even though they have chosen to live with their father.