Court : Singapore Supreme Court
choo han teck j: 1. this case concerns issues of maintenance and the division of matrimonial assets. the plaintiff/husband was born on 4 march 1964 and the defendant/wife, on 5 february 1965. both are permanent residents of singapore. the plaintiff is working as an editor, drawing a net monthly income of s$24,587.70. they were married in the district of sudbury, in the county of suffolk, on 10 february 1997. they have one daughter, v?, born on 20 november 1998. pursuant to a mediation agreement reached by the parties on 27 october 2010, v was to stay with the defendant and parties were to have joint custody over her. in may 2011, v moved to stay with the plaintiff. v continues to stay with the plaintiff to date. when counsel appeared before me, they had no objections with the current arrangement, that is, v to stay with the plaintiff and the defendant to have reasonable access. leave to apply will not be prejudiced so long as v remains a minor. the only issues before me were of division of assets, and maintenance for the defendant. 2. in august 2011, while the marriage was still subsisting, the defendant commenced maintenance proceedings against the plaintiff, claiming arrears for maintenance which the plaintiff agreed to pay pursuant to the mediation agreement since may 2011. in the midst of the maintenance proceedings, the plaintiff filed the writ of divorce on 6 october 2011. interim judgment was granted on 19 june 2012. the defendant subsequently withdrew her claim .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
choo han teck j: 1. this was an appeal by the appellant/husband to vary a maintenance order made by a district judge. in this appeal, the appellant sought to reduce the maintenance he was ordered to pay - a total monthly sum of $1,800 to his wife and child. the appellant prayed that the amount be varied to $500 a month. 2. parties obtained an interim divorce judgment on 21 october 2009. on 22 december 2009, an order of court by consent was recorded in which the appellant agreed to pay a monthly maintenance of $800 to the respondent/wife and $1,000 to the child of the marriage. on 23 july 2013, he applied to vary the maintenance order, seeking a reduction from $1,800 to $500. the application was heard by district judge cheryl koh mei chen (the "dj"), who dismissed the appellant's application, with costs fixed at $800 to the respondent. the appellant appealed to this court against the dj's decisions on the merits and costs. i have dismissed the appeal because the appellant has not adduced sufficient evidence to convince me that there is merit to vary the maintenance order. 3. in the court below, on 2 october 2013, the appellant appeared before the dj claiming to be indebted in the sum of $80,000 and suffering a loss of business. at that point, he was running his own spray painting company. counsel for the respondent, mr winston quek ("mr quek"), pointed out that this debt was not substantiated, and questioned the nature of the numerous cash withdrawals by the appellant, that .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... of the funds in the republic, and the court should therefore recognise the validity of the republic's title; and, (b) the human rights victims and the foundations were estopped from re-litigating the act of state doctrine by reason of the decision of the united states ninth circuit court of appeal in in re philippine national bank; philippine national bank v united states district court for the district ..... (sweet and maxwell, 15th ed, 2012) ("dicey, morris and collins vol 2") also states (at para 25r-001): rule 137a governmental act affecting any private proprietary right in any movable or immovable thing will be recognised as valid and effective in england if the act was valid and effective by the law of the country where the thing was situated (lex situs) at the moment when the ..... and another v hammer and another [1982] ac 888 ("buttes gas"), lord wilberforce considered (at 931a-b) that the "territorial act of state" doctrine was "concerned with the applicability of foreign municipal legislation within its own territory, and with the examinability ..... already had legal title to the funds, and, instead, advanced two parallel threads of argument: (a) under the act of state doctrine, the singapore court should, as a rule, accept the validity of the forfeiture judgment in determining entitlement to the funds as the courts are required to (i) give effect to the acts of state adopted by the philippine and swiss governments that culminated in the issuance of the forfeiture judgment or .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... was an advisor to columbia in various hospital transactions over the years, but left columbia more than two years before the start of the trial.4 michael chow acted as an intermediary between the hong brothers and rick evans in the sale of umpl's shares, and was the first person to raise the prospect of acquiring the ..... neither did the statement of claim assert any right of ptnm to rely on the contracts (rights of third parties) act (cap 53b, 2002 rev ed) ("the crtpa") to enforce the terms of the ssa, unlike the third-party claims made by ptnm (and columbia) against ..... the power of the court to grant a declaration is found in s 18 of the supreme court of judicature act (cap 322, 2007 rev ed) ("the scja") read with para 14 of the first schedule to the scja and o 15 r 6 of the rules of court (cap ..... a factual overlap between the third and the fourth main issues: both sets of alleged breaches arise from the same act of characterising under-declared and under-paid tax as revenue. ..... (1) subject to the provisions of this act, a person who is not a party to a contract (referred to in this act as a third party) may, in his own right, enforce a term of the contract if (a) the contract expressly provides that he may; or (b) subject to subsection (2), the term ..... on columbia's due diligence exercise and the financial aspects of the share sale transaction; (c) alan lim, a partner of a malaysian law firm, tengku mohamed and alan lim ("tmal"), who acted for columbia during negotiation of the ssa; 20. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
george wei jc: 1. this is an appeal to the high court in respect of the ancillary matters in divorce suit no 3018 of 2011. the plaintiff wife ("the plaintiff') and the defendant husband ("the defendant") married on 1 october 1981. divorce proceedings were commenced by the plaintiff on 23 june 2011 on the grounds of the defendant's unreasonable behaviour. interim judgment was granted on 19 march 2012. the marriage lasted some 31 years. on 7 june 2013, the learned district judge jen koh ("the learned dj") delivered her decision in respect of the ancillary matters. an appeal was filed by the plaintiff on 20 june 2013 and the appeal was heard by this court on 7 october 2013 and 28 november 2013. 2. after hearing the parties, i am allowing the plaintiff's appeal in part with the result that she is to receive 65% of the net value of the matrimonial property. details of the ancillary order, as varied on appeal, are set out towards the end of the judgment. i now give the reasons for my decision. the proceedings leading to the appeal 3. to understand the context of the current appeal, a brief summary of the proceedings leading to the appeal will be helpful. i also add that because the defendant appeared as a litigant-in-person at the hearing of the appeal, i have decided to set out in some detail the arguments and issues that were raised by both parties. 4. divorce proceedings were commenced by the plaintiff on 23 june 2011 on the grounds of the defendant's unreasonable behaviour. the .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... and commercial basis of what would likely have happened if the taxpayer had not entered into the arrangement constituting tax avoidance (see, for example, s 99(3)(a) of the 1976 new zealand act and miller v commissioner of inland revenue [2001] 3 nzlr 316 at [22], where lord hoffmann stated that "[t]he commissioner's duty is to make an assessment with regard to what in ..... : (a) the tax liability that arises from the inclusion of an income sought to be excluded or the disallowance of a deduction sought to be made (see, for example, s 177f of the australian act and the very recent new zealand court of appeal case of alesco new zealand ltd v commissioner of inland revenue [2013] 2 nzlr 175 at [120] and [123], currently on appeal to the supreme ..... been payable by any person; (b) to relieve any person from any liability to pay tax or to make a return under this act; or (c) to reduce or avoid any liability imposed or which would otherwise have been imposed on any person by this act, the comptroller may, without prejudice to such validity as it may have in any other respect or for any other purpose, disregard ..... case; (b) whether aqq could rely on the exception in s 33(3)(b); (c) if s 33(1) was prima facie engaged, whether aqq could nevertheless rely on any specific provisions of the act to preclude the operation of s 33; (d) whether the comptroller had exercised his powers under s 33(1) fairly and reasonably to counteract the tax advantage obtained; and (e) whether the comptroller had .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... the intermediary who actually breaches the contract in the tort of inducement of breach of contract, as was laid down in lumley v gye [1843] ewhc qb j73) or as the victim of the wrongful act of the defendant (eg, in the tort of unlawful interference with businessalso known as the tort of causing loss by unlawful meanssuch as where a defendant intends to injure the claimant by wrongful interference with ..... in a claim for conspiracy by unlawful means of conspiracy, the appellants must show that: (a) there was a combination of two or more persons to do certain acts; (b) the alleged conspirators had the intention to cause damage or injury to the plaintiff by those acts; (c) the acts were unlawful; (d) the acts were be performed in furtherance of the agreement; and (e) the plaintiff suffered loss as a result of the conspiracy (nagase singapore pte ltd v ching kai ..... of conspiracy to injure the plaintiff's commercial interests where that is the predominant purpose of the agreement between the defendants and of the acts done in execution of it which caused damage to the plaintiff, must i think be accepted by this house as too well-established ..... times 7 march 1981 transcript no 51 of 1981 ("lonrho v shell (no 2) ca") articulated the premise for the tort of conspiracy as "[consisting] of the agreement of two or more persons to act in combination in order to injure the plaintiff without justification, and where in pursuance of that object something is done whereby the plaintiff suffers damage" .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... documents (collectively "the original agreements"), dated 11 january 2006, which are each described in brief terms as follows: (a) a letter between the plaintiff and the companies releasing dominic from the plaintiff's services to enable him to act as the group chief financial officer ("group cfo") of the companies ("the release letter"); (b) a letter between the plaintiff and the companies clarifying the terms of the release letter ("the side letter"); (c) an employment agreement ..... this was because the plaintiff argued that, instead of commencing the previous suit, it would have been entitled to the shares upon termination of the consultancy agreement if not for the following: (a) the companies' failure to act in good faith by not issuing an ipo activation notice and/or the companies' withholding of information related to the trade sale, both of which formed the 2nd breach of contract claim; and (b) the defendants' false representations which ..... regarding the first element of the tort, a conspiratorial agreement or combination need not be in the form of an express agreement but may, and often is, proven inferentially from the surrounding circumstances and acts of the alleged conspirators: see asian corporate services (sea) pte ltd v eastwest management ltd (singapore branch) [2006] 1 slr(r) 901 at [19]; raiffeisen zentralbank osterreich ag v archer daniels midland co and others [2007] 1 slr(r) 196 at [95] and [96] .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... , to be for the benefit of his wife or of his children or of his wife and children or any of them, or by any woman on her own life and expressed, before the date of commencement of section 10 of the insurance (amendment) act 2009, to be for the benefit of her husband or of her children or of her husband and children or any of them, shall create a trust in favour of the objects therein named, and the moneys payable under any such policy ..... given that the wife was nominated as a beneficiary before the commencement of s 10 of the insurance (amendment) act 2009 on 1 september 2009, i agree with mr siow that s 73 of the clpa is applicable to the present case. 45. ..... however, under para 2 of the first schedule of the supreme court of judicature act (cap 322, 2007 rev ed) the high court has the general power, in any cause or matter relating to land where it appears necessary or expedient, to order the land or any part of it to be sold and to give all necessary ..... mr siow submitted that when the husband named the wife and the mother as beneficiaries in the insurance policy, a statutory trust was created in favour of the wife under s 73 of the conveyancing and law of property act (cap 61, 1994 rev ed) ("clp a"). ..... an inter-spousal gift, by its very nature, is always acquired by one spouse during a marriage, and thus falls under s 112(10)(b) of the current act, ... .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Singapore Supreme Court
..... the court may, with a view to bringing to an end or remedying the matters complained of, make such order as it thinks fit and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the order may (a) direct or prohibit any act or cancel or vary any transaction or resolution; (b) regulate the conduct of the affairs of the company in future; (c) authorise civil proceedings to be brought in the name of or on behalf of the company by such person or persons ..... directors are being exercised in a manner oppressive to one or more of the members or holders of debentures including himself or in disregard of his or their interests as members, shareholders or holders of debentures of the company; or (b) that some act of the company has been done or is threatened or that some resolution of the members, holders of debentures or any class of them has been passed or is proposed which unfairly discriminates against or is otherwise prejudicial to one or more ..... is well-illustrated in larsen oil, where the court of appeal observed, in relation to the claim based on s 73b of the conveyancing and law of property act (cap 61, 1994 rev ed) ("clp a"), that it "is one that may straddle both a company's pre-insolvency state of affairs, as well as its ..... . in exeter city, the petitioner, exeter city afc ltd, filed a petition for relief under s 459 of the companies act 1985 (the equivalent of s 216 of the ca) alleging that the affairs of the first respondent, football conference ltd (in which it was a shareholder), .....
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