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Singapore: High Court dismisses ‘kitchen sink’ arbitration set-aside; cautions against scattergun grounds; guidance on failure to consider, timely bias objections, inconsequential fraud and harmless procedural deviations; potential indemnity costs

Published on: 14 October 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Arbitration expert
Legal News
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Article summary

Haide Building Materials Co Ltd v Ship Recycling Investments Inc [2024] SGHC 222 What are the practical implications of this case?

Courts are increasingly intolerant of applicants who swamp proceedings with numerous grounds in an effort to make up for weak substance. Historically, courts felt compelled to address every ground, offering only gentle reproach and noting how such tactics were counterproductive. The mood has shifted: volume is no longer being indulged where it masks a lack of merit...

Justice McHugh of the Australian High Court observed in an address that when an appeal notice carries too many grounds, the strongest arguments become lost amid a clutter of inferior points (Michael McHugh AO QC, The Essence of Appellate Advocacy (Opening Address, Australian Bar Association 2012 Appellate Advocacy Course)). Similar sentiments recur in judgments (Xia Zhengyan v Geng Changqing [2015] 3 SLR 732, para 100) and in advocacy literature...

Now, a single judge of the Singapore High Court has endorsed, with evident approval, the English Court of Appeal’s approach of declining to entertain such overgrown applications. The clear practical message is that indiscriminate proliferation of grounds is no longer merely frowned upon; it risks summary rejection, with courts prioritising clarity and focus over sheer quantity...

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