A Taiwanese man has been ordered by the local Supreme Court to pay his mother back almost $1 million in return for the amount she spent raising him and sending him through dentistry school.
The ruling of Taiwan’s top court was based on a contract the mother and her son agreed to sign in 1997, according to BBC.
In the document, the then 20-year-old son agreed to pay his mom 60% of his monthly income after completing his training. Years after the man failed to pay her money, the mother decided to file a case against him for refusing to honor the contract.
In his defense, the son argued that demanding a financial payment for a parent’s duty of raising a child is not right. The court, however, has ruled that the contract both parties signed is valid. He is now required to pay his mother including interest.
The mother, identified by her surname Luo, raised both of her sons by herself after she divorced her husband. Luo said she signed a contract with her two sons because she thought they might refuse to care for her in old age even after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education. Under the contract, both of them would pay her a portion of their earnings as repayments for the school fees, which would add up to a combined total of $1.7 million.
Her elder son has already settled the contract for a smaller amount after reaching an agreement. The younger son, however, contested the validity of the signed documents, arguing that he was very young when the contract was signed. He further reasoned that after his graduation, he worked at his mother’s dental clinic for years, helping her make more money than she is now asking for. The court has deemed the contract valid since the son was neither under-aged nor forced when the contract was signed.
In Taiwan, an adult offspring is required under the local civil code to provide for their elderly parents. Typically, however, parents do not resort to suing their children to fulfill such responsibility.
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