Mother wins bumper award from dentist son
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- Published: Monday, 08 January 2018 07:38
- Written by News Editor
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A dentist in Taiwan has been ordered to pay his mother nearly $1m (£712,000) as an "upbringing fee." In Chinese and Taiwanese traditions, children are strongly encouraged to give back to their parents once they have reached adulthood. His mother made her sons sign a written argument to ensure they'd pay their debt.
This sort of agreement is often left to the discretion of the families, however, the dentist’s mother took this tradition to a whole new level: She made her sons sign a written argument to ensure they'd pay their debt. When one of the sons refused to pay more money, he got served.
While rare, such a contract is lawful, and Taiwan's Supreme Court sided with the mother on 2 January. They asked the youngest son to pay his mother an "upbringing fee" of $754,000, as well as interest bringing the amount to $967,000.
The woman, only known as "Luo," made sure her sons wouldn't forget her sacrifice and pay her back in full. Luo's husband, named Chu, worked at a dental practice funded with her family's money until their divorce.
The mother raised her sons alone and was counting on them for her dotage. After putting them through dentist school, she grew worried that they might not pay her back. In 1997 she took matters into her own hands and had them both sign a contract when they turned 20 years old, reports the BBC.
The contract stipulated that the sons would pay her 60% of their net profits until the total amount paid reached $1.7m. After becoming a dentist in 2003, one of the son objected, saying he had paid her back enough already and didn't have anymore to give her. In 2010, the mother filed a lawsuit.
Her eldest son reached an agreement with his mother and had to pay a smaller amount, However, things didn't turn out so well for his younger sibling. The youngest son told the court that he had worked for his mother's practice and had already paid her back $1m. He argued that his debt should be cleared, given he had signed the contract at a very young age, and that it was wrong of his mother to ask for financial retribution for raising him.
However, the Court ruled that he was already an adult we he had signed the contract and should be held responsible in respecting its terms. They ordered him to pay the remainder of the sum as well interest. The decision was met with mixed reaction in Taiwan, where the case gathered a lot of attention.
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