Time to pay back debts: mother demanded a million dollars in tuition compensation from her dentist son
A Taiwanese man has to pay his mother almost a million dollars for raising him and paying for dental training. This decision was made by the Supreme Court of Taiwan.
The mother signed a contract with her son in 1997, when her son was 20 years old. According to the document, he must give his mother 60% of his monthly salary after graduation. But the man avoided payments for several years, and the mother had no other choice but to go to court.
In court, the man argued that it was wrong for the mother to demand monetary compensation for the upbringing of the child. But the court recognized the contract as valid, and the man will have to pay the mother financial compensation with interest.
The woman who was on the case under the surname Lo, after the divorce, raised two sons alone. According to Lo, she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for her sons' education at the dental institute. But she was worried that her sons would not take care of her in her old age. She came up with the idea to sign a contract with them, according to which they should give part of their income as compensation for the funds spent, the total amount of which was $ 1,700,000.
The eldest son agreed with his mother to pay a smaller amount. However, the youngest son, Chu, claimed in court that he was too young at the time of signing the contract, so it should be considered invalid. Chu also said that he had worked for a long time at his mother's dental clinic and helped her earn more than they require from him now.
The representative of the Supreme Court said that the judges recognized the contract as valid, since at the time of its conclusion the son was old enough and no one forced him to sign the document.
According to the Civil Code of Taiwan, children are responsible for elderly parents. Although most parents do not sue their children, even if they do not take care of them in old age.