From: Peter Radan <peter.radan@mq.edu.au>

Sent: Wednesday 16 December 2020 05:57

To: obligations@uwo.ca

Subject: The Penalties doctrine in Singapore

In a lengthy and detailed discussion of authorities across a number of common law jurisdictions and the recent and extensive academic literature on recent developments on the law of penalties, on 15 December 2020, the Court of Appeal in Singapore in Denka Advantech Private Ltd v Seraya Energy Pte Ltd [2020] SGCA 119, came to th4e following conclusions:

(i) at [99], it sided with the UK Supreme Court in Cavendish Square Holding v El-Makdessi in rejecting rejected the High Court of Australia decision in Andrews v ANZ Banking Group Ltd to the effect that the penalties doctrine is not confined to stipulated sums being paid upon breach of contract; and  

(ii) at [151,it rejected the 'legitimate interest' principle adopted by both Andrews, Cavendish, and the Supreme Court in New Zealand earlier this year in 127 Hobson Street Ltd v Honey Bees Preschool Ltd  [2020] NSWSC 53.

Peter

Professor Peter Radan,

Honorary Professor, Macquarie University

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law

BA, LLB, PhD (Syd), Dip Ed (Syd CAE)

Macquarie Law School

6 First Walk, 

Macquarie University, NSW, 2109

Australia

Email: peter.radan@mq.edu.au

Blog: https://www.allaboutnothing.info