Business, Joint Family & Getting <banned word filter activated> Kicked

[singhbj singh]

Feud that has torn apart family behind luxury hotels

A father and son, who built up one of Britain's most famous hotel chains, will go head to head in a law suit at the High Court this week

By Jasper Copping7:15AM GMT 17 Nov 2013

It was a very British story of business success: how an Asian father and son came to this country, started with a post office and built a well-known hotel chain.

Bal Mohinder Singh, and his eldest son, Jasminder, who came to be worth an estimated £415 million, bought a country house together, with three generations living happily under one roof.

But this week they will find themselves on the opposite sides of the courtroom, as an extraordinary legal case is heard at the High Court, with father suing son.

Mr Singh snr claims that his son, who is head of the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotels group, has forsaken the Sikh tradition of sharing family property by excluding him from the business.

The 86-year-old moved to Britain in 1973 and ran a post office in Stamford Hill, north London, where his son, now 62, would help out. The pair moved into the hotel business, and their firm gradually bought about a dozen hotels, including the Vanderbilt and the Savoy Court in central London, with the May Fair, in Mayfair, as the flagship.

Mr Singh put his son in charge because he had better English and an accountancy qualification. But after years of happy, and profitable, cooperation, the pair fell out.

The older man claims that in 2010, his son forced him to retire, and has failed to share the family wealth with him. He brought the case, which starts on Tuesday, because although both men still live with their wives at Tetworth Hall, a seven-bedroom house in Berkshire, all other attempts at mediation have failed.

As the head of the family. I have to be respected and the fact that I was forced to retire by Jasminder was very, very painful for me, Mr Singh snr said. I was devastated with being forced out and since then my health has failed. My wife is unwell too. When I travel to the High Court I will be in an ambulance and it will be very difficult and stressful to have to give evidence against Jasminder.

He said that he spends most of his time in his room. In earlier submissions to the court, he accused his son of trying to force him and his wife, Satwant Kaur Singh, out of the property. He also said his son had refused to provide a chairlift for his mother, who can no longer climb the stairs, and had withdrawn the use of her driver and other staff.

Mr Singh snr added: He is my eldest son and of course I still love him. I always will. I will not hear anybody say a bad word against him and why should they? He has worked hard too. But as I said, this is about respect and carrying on the traditions in which I have brought Jasminder up.

I am getting on, in ill health and deeply wounded by all of this, but I have to find the strength to get what is mine and uphold the traditions which are so valuable to us. They are the backbone to my family. I have great faith in the British legal system as I am only fighting for what is rightfully mine.

Mr Singh snr is accusing his son of failing to abide by the Mitakshara system, from the Sikh and Hindu traditions, which implies a sharing of family wealth. Although the system is not part of English law, his lawyers will argue that all family members chose to work under it and had therefore joined a common intention constructive trust.

Mrs Singh and their two other children daughter, Seema, 59, and younger son Harinder, 46, both accountants are all due to give evidence on his behalf. Mr Singh snr added: We always brought our children up as Sikhs, to honour and respect others, and to put the family first.

Mr Singh jnr has declined to comment on the case, but in earlier submissions he has contested this claim, saying he did not have a particularly religious upbringing, that neither of his parents regarded the family to be living under an agreement to share property, nor was there any such agreement. He also claims it was he who played the leading part in building up the family business.

If the proceedings succeed, Mr Singh snr, a grandfather of seven, could secure a large share of the familys fortunes. His son is one of the countrys wealthiest Asians and his hotel chain last year acquired the Odeon in Leicester Square, to turn the site into a hotel and cinema venue. The group is worth an estimated £800 million, but much of this is held in trust. The amount being contested is thought to be about £50 million.

The case is a remarkable twist in a family saga that has its roots in the Punjab province of what was then British India, where Mr Singh was born in 1927. He moved to east Africa and his eldest son was born in Tanganyika in 1951. The father ran a restaurant and nightclub in the Kenyan port of Kisumu before he moved to Britain, following the pleas of his son, who was training to be an accountant and living in a property his father owned in Finchley, north London.

It was a big step, and my wife did not want to leave Kenya but I saw his point, he said. I was in my 40s and not getting any younger and I had heard wonderful things about how hard work is rewarded in Britain. Asian businessmen like me, and for that matter Jasminder, have proved to be a solid cornerstone of this great country.

His wifes brothers went into the hotel business and the father and son joined them, though they soon went their separate ways.

Mr Singh snr said he was only bringing the case out of respect for tradition: It is not simply about money and the millions that I am fighting my son for.

Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10454611/Feud-that-has-torn-apart-family-behind-luxury-hotels.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509011/The-800m-hotel-boss-sued-father.html

[simran345]

Shame on them, good he is taking them to court to show they did not provide facilities for them in their old age and illness. But paise nal ni jane, what stupidity to go to court over all that money.

The real wealth is health, which money can never replace. Hope they get their stairlift.

[ssinghuk]

The story is just another newspaper story, but what gets me is why is the farther trying to play the "Sikh" tradition card?? - "Sikh tradition of sharing family property". Is running a nightclub under Sikh tradition as well?

[S1ngh]

True sikhi keeps the family intact. One loose morals and ethics easily if they do not choose religion not to be central part of their life.

[singhbj singh]

There is classic Hindi song

"Na Biwi Na Bachha Na Baap Bada Na Maiyan

The Whole Thing Is That Ke Bhaiya Sabse Bada Rupaiya"

Frankly what you sow is what you reap !

1.Businessmen are never ethical.

2.Disadvantages of Joint Family System - Members tend to spend more and more due to the feeling that expenses will be shared by the whole family. This makes the economic condition of family worse. When a joint family disintegrates, the commonness of property leads to family founds and often to litigation in courts of law.

3.Getting a_s kicked - Read Gurbani

http://searchgurbani.com/scriptures/ggs_shabad/1890/line/2

[singhbj singh]

Shame on them, good he is taking them to court to show they did not provide facilities for them in their old age and illness. But paise nal ni jane, what stupidity to go to court over all that money.

The real wealth is health, which money can never replace. Hope they get their stairlift.

Simran ji,

You are right "Health before Wealth"

Senior is paying for his own bad karma, giving money more importance than Gurmat can never bring peace.

After winning he should build a state of art Old Age Home and live peacefully with other people who need such facility.

Or move to India where you can get nurse & maids to give care at home.

Many senior Doctors make house calls at reasonable rates.

And experienced cook can prepare Healthy meals.