Singapore man sues woman for ‘rejecting’ him in €2m lawsuit

Mr K Kawshigan filed a lawsuit against Ms Nora Tan Shu Mei in the High Court for allegedly traumatising him when he found out that she only saw him as a friend.

He had also previously sued Ms Tan before the Magistrate's Court for $22,000 (€15,335) in damages for “breaching an agreement to improve their relationship” although this was later struck out, Channel News Asia reports.

According to court documents, Mr Kawshigan claimed that Ms Tan’s rejection had caused him “trauma, depression and impacts to his life” over a two-year period, as well as damaging his “stellar reputation”.

The $3 million figure also covered “indefinite loss of potential investments” amounting to $1.2 million.

Mr Kawshigan first met Ms Tan in a social setting in 2016 and the pair became friends.

However, they “became misaligned about how they saw their relationship” in September 2020 as Ms Tan saw Mr Kawshigan as a friend but Mr Kawshigan considered them to be much closer, said deputy registrar Lewis Tan.

Ms Tan then suggested that they reduce their interactions and establish boundaries, offending Mr Kawshigan, who felt this would mean taking a step back in their relationship.

In exchanges laid out in the judgment, Ms Tan told Mr Kawshigan that her “discomfort is genuine”, to which Mr Kawshigan replied: "Your discomfort is as fake as the cause."

Mr Kawshigan said that Ms Tan “truly hurt” him and claimed she was the “cause of my trauma”.

He then threatened legal action against Tan, but this was postponed as he then arranged for Ms Tan to attend counselling sessions.

Ms Tan kept up with the “meaningless and futile” sessions with Mr Kawshigan’s counsellor for a year and a half but stopped after she became frustrated with Mr Kawshigan's "unreasonable requests".

According to Channel News Asia, Ms Tan initiated harassment proceedings against Mr Kawshigan sometime before April 2022.

In response, Mr Kawshigan messaged Ms Tan alluding to a potential claim with “strong legal basis” against her and asked her to send him an “improvement summary” listing ways that he could change his behaviour.

Ms Tan reported back the following day with a list of improvements including “not trivialising your pain and hurt” and “meeting up based on mutual availability, beyond coffee settings”.

When Ms Tan later attempted to maintain a distance, Mr Kawshigan sent her a letter in June 2022 informing her that he was making an offer of amicable resolution before filing a civil action suit against her.

Ms Tan did not reply to the offer to settle, and Mr Kawshigan initiated the High Court action against her on July 7 of last year.

Meanwhile, Ms Tan obtained an expedited protection order against Mr Kawshigan and filed a defence and counterclaim against his action.

She said Mr Kawshigan had harassed her by sending threatening messages saying she had to maintain communications with him or face court.

Deputy registrar Lewis Tan said Mr Kawshigan filed the suit because he refused to accept the fact that Ms Tan no longer wants to have contact with him.

According to Ms Tan's lawyers, the High Court ordered Mr Kawshigan on Tuesday to pay costs of $14,000 (€9,803) to Ms Tan.

Ms Tan also has a long-term personal protection order application against Mr Kawshigan and has separately lodged a magistrate’s complaint against him.

The High Court suit is due to be heard in February.