Taiwan's top court has ordered a dentist to pay his mother around 22.33 million Taiwanese dollars (Dh2.72m) as reimbursement for the money she spent raising and educating him.
The country's supreme court on Tuesday upheld a previous ruling that the 41-year-old, identified by his family name, Chu, should honour a contract he signed with his mother 20 years ago promising to refund her.
The claimant, surnamed Lo, divorced in 1990 and raised their two sons alone.
Worried that nobody would look after her when she got old, Ms Lo signed the contracts with her sons after they both turned 20, stipulating that they must pay her 60 per cent of the net profit from their incomes.
The claimant accused her sons of ignoring her after they both started relationships, saying their girlfriends sent her letters through their lawyers demanding her not to "bother" her sons, according to Taiwanese media reports.
She filed the lawsuit eight years ago when they refused to honour the contracts. The eldest son eventually paid her 5m Taiwanese dollars to settle the case.
Her younger son claimed that the contract violated "good customs" as raising a child should not be measured in financial terms, and went to court.
Ms Lo appealed all the way to the supreme court after lower courts ruled in favour of her son.
The supreme court said the contract was valid because Mr Chu was an adult when he signed it, and that as a dentist he was capable of repaying his mother.
Abandonment of senior citizens has been on the rise in Taiwan, prompting calls for a law to jail adults who fail to look after their elderly parents although it is yet to pass.
