Law. Faith. Justice. Community. Culture.
Daniel John Brader and others v Commerzbank AG [2013] SGHC 284
Significance: Court held that an announcement made to employees at a Townhall meeting regarding bonus payments was held to be a sufficiently certain binding unilateral contract collateral to their employment contracts.
Bombay Talkies (S) Pte Ltd v United Overseas Bank Limited [2015] SGCA 66
Significance: meaning of compounding debt in respect of statutory demands under the companies winding-up regime.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
– Daniel 3:16-18
At times we may be tempted to, and other times forced to, fall on our knees to worship things which do not deserve our worship. Money, career, bosses, social pressures and expectations, state, and so on. And there’s a fear that if we say no to worshipping these, we will be thrown into the fiery furnace. Indeed, the world lives on fear. Fear of superiors, fear of harm, fear of losing out to others, fear of insufficiency, fear of missing out, fear of being left out. And fear makes us do things which we shouldn’t. But we justify it and say, it’s the way of life. We have no choice.
There is a choice. The choice is to say no in faith. Faith does not say, I’ll do this and certainly succeed, or I’ll certainly prosper. No, faith says, I’ll do this and trust that my God will do what’s best. And even if I should suffer for it, I will stick to my guns, because I am certain of my convictions; I am certain of my God who ultimately works for my good for I do this out of faith and love, and I am called according to His good purposes.
Thus, faith assures us shalom. Even in the middle of the fiery furnace, we can have peace and joy. Because we know, whether we see him or not, there is someone who’s beside us in the furnace, one who is awesome and powerful, who is the Son of God.
May we always choose to face the fiery furnace in faith than cower in fear.
Significance: principles on Rule 31 of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules prohibiting solicitors from acting against former clients and persons “involved in or associated with” former clients in related matters; meaning of persons “involved in or associated with” former clients; “related matters”.
PT Selecta Bestama v Sin Huat Huat Marine Transportation Pte Ltd [2015] SGHC 295
Significance: stay of proceedings, multi-tiered dispute resolution clause, obligation to negotiate prior to legal proceedings and exclusive jurisdiction clause; reliance on exclusive jurisdiction clause despite challenging validity of contract.
Piattchanine, Iouri v Phosagro Asia Pte Ltd [2015] SGHC 259
Significance: High Court determines issue of when it is permissible to raise new grounds for terminating employment contract post-termination; breaches of implied contractual duties of employee.
Tan Chin Hoon and others v Tan Choo Suan and others [2010] SGHC 340
Significance: beneficial owners of shares in companies do not have the locus standi to commence actions in minority oppression. Such beneficial owners should first commence proceedings to have the shares transferred to themselves before commencing action in minority oppression.
Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi (Cavendish) and ParkingEye Limited v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67
Significance: the true test for whether a clause is unenforceable as a penalty clause is whether the impugned provision is a secondary obligation which imposes a detriment on the contract-breaker out of all proportion to any legitimate interest of the innocent party in the enforcement of the primary obligation.
I hurried through a tiny, litter-peppered park enclosed within an HDB precinct. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone walking towards me. A cleaner–broom in hand, South Asian descent. I hastened. He slowed to a stop. He looked past me. I threw a furtive glance in that direction. There was a domestic helper with a toddler in her arms, fair as morn. The toddler was smiling. At the man. She waved animatedly at him. Eyes twinkled. The man hesitated. Then he sheepishly waved back at the child.
We paused: the man, the woman and I.
The moment passed when finally, the child turned to look at the playground some distance away. Our fellowship dispersed. I slowly left that tiny budding garden, my heart blooming a thousand golden petals.
“When philosophy has gained the truth of which it is capable, it passes into politics and prayer, politics through which the world is changed, prayer through which men ask God to complete the change of the world by carrying them into His presence and giving them what, left to themselves, they would always lack.”
“And, as the reader might have discerned by now, I do believe in God and in the higher knowledge that cannot be ours. And that explains why I believe that Unger (or any other theorist) cannot postulate an even close to perfect theory. That this is so is demonstrated by the complex mesh of critique and counter-critique that have, as their central focus, the influential theory or theories of the day. Indeed, Unger himself believed that to be so in Knowledge and Politics, although his present views are rather less obvious. I see nothing terribly frightening in this acknowledgment of the fallibility of human knowledge which we nevertheless continue to use whilst functioning as human beings. It also mandates a humility which has, in any event, always been the hallmark of the great scholars of our time.”