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- Significant cases & deals featuring our lawyers
Gregory Vijayendran and Dhiviya Mohan from the Commercial Litigation Practice and Wendy Low from the Intellectual Property Practice successfully acted for Revamp Hair (S) Pte Ltd and Revamp Hair International Pte Ltd, the Plaintiffs in Suit 674/2014 (collectively, the "Plaintiffs"), in this application for substituted service.
The Plaintiffs had commenced Suit 674/2014 against seven defendants in respect of various defamatory statements constituting malicious falsehoods that were published in two Facebook posts. As it was impracticable to serve the Writ of Summons on the 7th Defendant, the Plaintiffs applied by way of Summons No. 6207/2014 for an order of substituted service of the Writ of Summons and the Statement of Claim (the "Documents") to be effected on the 7th Defendant by sending a private message via computer to the Facebook page of the 7th Defendant attaching electronic copies of the same, and for such service to be deemed good and sufficient.
At the hearing, the team for the Plaintiffs submitted that it had undertaken reasonable efforts to serve the Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim, including conducting a Facebook search. The team also presented evidence to show that the account was controlled by the 7th Defendant and was live and active, and that service by private message would likely be effectual in bringing the Documents to the knowledge of the 7th Defendant. Upon hearing the team's submissions, the Assistant Registrar granted the Plaintiffs' application, and service of the Documents was effected via Facebook.
The 7th Defendant subsequently failed to enter an appearance. The Plaintiffs then obtained default judgment against the 7th Defendant, which was similarly served on the 7th Defendant via Facebook.
Although foreshadowed in law reform papers and law journal articles, this is an unusual case in Singapore in which substituted service of a Writ and Statement of Claim was permitted by the courts via service of a private message on a defendant's Facebook account. It demonstrates the utility and versatility of social media as an avenue not only to bring home knowledge about a pending litigation but as a virtual receptacle for service of cause papers.
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Gregory Vijayendran and Dhiviya Mohan (assisted by Practice Trainee Jeremy Yeo) from the Commercial Litigation Practice successfully acted for Revamp Hair (S) Pte Ltd and Revamp Hair International Pte Ltd, the Plaintiffs in Suit 674/2014 (collectively, the "Plaintiffs"), in resisting a striking out application.
The Plaintiffs had commended Suit 674/2014 against seven defendants in respect of various defamatory statements constituting malicious falsehoods that were published in two Facebook posts. The Plaintiffs obtained an Order to serve the Writ of Summons and the Statement of Claim on the 7th Defendant by way of Facebook and when the 7th Defendant failed to enter an appearance within the time for entering an appearance, obtained interlocutory judgment for damages to be assessed and costs under Order 13 Rule 2 of the Rules of Court.
The 3rd to 6th Defendants subsequently took out an application in Summons No. 3376/2014 to strike out the Plaintiffs' Statement of Claim in its entirety, which included claims of defamation, malicious falsehood, conspiracy by unlawful means and unlawful interference with business. The 3rd to 6th Defendants alleged that the Plaintiffs had entered into a settlement agreement with them which extinguished the said causes of action. The learned Registrar Mr. Foo Chee Hock (as he then was) dismissed the 3rd to 6th Defendants' application and awarded costs to be paid to the Plaintiffs by the 3rd to 6th Defendants in the sum of S$5,000 (inclusive of disbursements).
The 3rd to 6th Defendants subsequently appealed the decision in Registrar's Appeal No. 313 of 2014 ("RA 313"), but the Honourable Justice Belinda Ang ("Justice Ang") upheld the Registrar's (as he then was) decision. The issues on appeal centered around the mixed question of law and fact in respect of whether or not parties had entered into a valid and binding settlement agreement. Justice Ang held that the Plaintiffs' Statement of Claim was neither legally nor factually unsustainable. In the circumstances, Justice Ang dismissed RA 313 and fixed costs of the appeal in the sum of S$6,000 (inclusive of disbursements) to be paid by the 3rd to 6th Defendants to the Plaintiffs.
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Simon Goh, Wang Ying Shuang and Benjamin Teo from the Insurance & Reinsurance Practice acted for the Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Plc ("RSA") in Singapore in RSA's S$200 million sale and transfer of its book of insurance business to Allied World Assurance Company, Limited where we prepared the Scheme of Transfer and secured Monetary Authority of Singapore's approval for the same, as well as advising on all other regulatory aspects of the sale and transfer. This culminated in RSA successfully obtaining the High Court of Singapore's confirmation of the Scheme of Transfer for an effective date of transfer on 1 April 2015.
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