Abdul Hamid Embong J:

The plaintiff, who was 76 years old at the time of making this application, is the wife of the defendant, now aged 90. They were married in 1938 and are blessed with six children, three sons and three daughters. The family is now embroiled in a bitter family conflict with allegations that the defendant had withdrawn huge sums of money from their joint accounts and transferring them into a joint account of the defendant and his third son, Loh Mui Fah. Her application under s. 3 of the Mental Disorders Ordinance 1952 (MDO) seeks for the following orders:

(i) an inquiry as to whether the defendant is mentally disordered and incapable of managing himself and his affairs;

(ii) a time and place be appointed for the inquiry;

(iii) The inquiry be directed to also determine the following:

(a) the nature of the properties belonging to the defendant;

(b) the nature of the documents executed by the defendant from 6 August 2001 until the date of the inquiry;

(iv) such other directions as may be necessary for the purposes of and consequent to the inquiry;

(v) that in the event that the defendant is mentally disordered and incapable of managing himself and his affairs, the charge of the defendant's affairs and his estate be committed to a committee or committees as this Honourable Court shall appoint with such powers of management as may be necessary and proper save that the powers shall not extend to the sale or charge by way of mortgage of the estate or any part thereof or to the letting of any immovable property, unless for a term not exceeding three years;

(vi) that the committee or committees appointed by this Honourable Court be expressly authorized to institute such necessary legal proceedings in the name of the defendant or on his behalf as his next friend as it may deem fit;

(vii) that the defendant do pay the costs of the proceedings;

(viii) that there be such further and/or other reliefs as may be just and necessary.

Prior to filing this application, the plaintiff had no complaints about the conduct and mental capacity of the defendant. When he left their matrimonial residence of No. 4 Jalan Thomson Ipoh in August 2001 to live with their third son, she started to complain of his forgetfulness, mood swing and change of attitude. This application was supported by five medical reports exhibited by the plaintiff to show the defendant's ailment and state of mind. The defendant in opposing this application also produced four medical reports on himself. I had scrutinised both sides' medical reports and found them to contain certain common findings which is that the defendant was suffering from Alzheimer disease (AD) of varying degrees and also from prostate cancer. The latter ailment is of course not mentally related.

Reference was made by the defence to the definition of AD as found in Cambridge - International Dictionary of English which states it as:

a disease of the nervous system that is common in old people and which results in the gradual loss of memory, speech movement and the ability to think clearly. Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated one in five of the 2 million Britons over the age of 80.

The following extract from the Alzheimer Research Forum website was also referred to this Court. It says:

AD is the leading cause of dementia among older people. An estimated 10 percent of Americans over the age of 65 and half those over the age of 85 have Alzheimer's. More than 4 million Americans currently suffer from the disease. In popular imagination, AD is equated with an impaired memory, but the disease includes a number of other changes in brain function that result in inattention, disoriented behaviour, altered personality, difficulty in speaking and comprehending, and impaired gait and movement.

In a more advanced stage of AD, the following symptoms may occur:

1. A decrease in knowledge of recent events;

2. Forgetting events in life history, essentially losing awareness of who you are;

3. Problems choosing proper cl