A determination by the Council of the Law Society to dismiss a complaint made against Kwa Kim Li, the lawyer of the founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in a judgment released on Monday (March 14).
The Apex Court reversed a decision from the High Court requiring the Law Society to refer Ms Kwa to a disciplinary tribunal because of a complaint claiming that the lawyer had failed to destroy past wills of the late Mr Lee.
The complaint, along with three others, had been filed by Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the younger children of Mr Lee.
The Court of Appeal found that there was no evidence that the late Prime Minister had intended for his previous wills to be physically destroyed, provided they were invalidated correctly.
The apex court also said in its ruling that the Law Society had been within its rights to ask the inquiry committee looking into the complaints to take a second look at its recommendations.
In May 2020, the inquiry committee said that two of the complaints from the younger Lee siblings had warranted further disciplinary proceedings. However, a few months later, in August, it dismissed one of those complaints after the Law Society asked that it take a second look at the case upon hearing from Ms Kwa.
But Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang filed an appeal after the second complaint was dismissed, saying that procedure had not been followed.
In 2021, the High Court ruled that the tribunal should look into three of the complaints filed by Dr Lee and Mr Lee, including one that alleged that Ms Kwa had failed to follow instructions to destroy the late Prime Minister’s previous wills.
The decision from the High Court was appealed by the Law Society.
On Monday (March 14), the five-member panel of the Apex Court, headed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, said that the High Court judge had erred in finding that the Law Society council had no right to have a case reconsidered after the inquiry committee recommended a formal investigation.
The younger Lee siblings, both trustees and executors of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s estate and applying for the order under Section 96 (1) of the Legal Profession Act, sought for the Law Society to be directed to apply to the Chief Justice for the appointment of a disciplinary tribunal for a formal investigation into Ms Kwa’s conduct.
Ms Kwa, the niece of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s wife, the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo, is managing partner of Lee and Lee, which was founded in 1955 by the late Mr Lee. Between Aug 20, 2011, and Nov 2, 2012, she had prepared six of the late Mr Lee’s wills.
The Straits Times reports that Ms Kwa had explained to the committee that Mr Lee Kuan Yew had never used the word “destroy” when they discussed his earlier wills. It was she herself who used that word.
“She further explained that when she used that word, she did so to refer to the act of invalidating a will, and we understand this in the sense of destroying its legal force,” stated the judgment from the Court of Appeal.
“She also explained that (Mr Lee Kuan Yew) would often ask her about the contents of his previous wills and she then needed to be able to refer to the prior wills.”
“In our judgment, there is no basis to challenge the conclusions of the inquiry committee. There is in fact no factual controversy at all because there is no evidence to suggest that (Mr Lee Kuan Yew) intended that his wills were to be destroyed physically, so long as they had been properly invalidated,” it added. /TISG
Younger Lee siblings want disciplinary tribunal to look into Kwa Kim Li’s conduct