Author: Ronald JJ Wong

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Legal Lifecycle of a Business: All the contracts and legal issues your business may face from startup to acquisition to listing to liquidation

As a lawyer, I’ve worked with clients from startup founders to CEOs and Board Directors of listed companies. I get questions from time to time about their legal problems and shortfalls in their legal documentation. Just like it’s prudent to have annual medical check-ups on our health, businesses would do well to have regular legal health diagnostics.

This article explains the general legal issues and legal documents, contracts, and agreements which a business can expect to encounter through its lifecycle from founding to seed, from maturity to liquidation.

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Singapore High Court held employer not obliged to comply with its own employment policies: Kallivalap Praveen Nair v Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 261

Interesting case: Kallivalap Praveen Nair v Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 261

Ex-employee claimed that employer GSK breached its employment contract by failing to follow its own employment policies.

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Directors winding up companies under Singapore’s IRDA

Singapore Law; Legal; Lawyer

Significance: in Adip Mittal v Offshore Holding Company Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 239, the General Division of the Singapore High Court (coram Goh Yihan JC) considered, in the first reported decision on this issue, the legal principles applicable to s 124(1)(b) of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA), which allows directors to wind up companies. Prior to the IRDA, directors had no legal standing to wind up companies.

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SGHC on intention to repair in cost of cure damages claims

Singapore Law; Legal; Lawyer

Significance: the General Division of the Singapore High Court in JSD Corp Pte Ltd v Tri-Line Express Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 227 (coram: Goh Yihan JC) clarified that a claimant’s intention to repair will be a very significant factor in the court’s assessment on whether to grant cost of cure damages in claims of breach of contract or negligent damage to property.

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Case: Singapore High Court grants declaratory judgment in default and varies default judgment in part

Powercom Yuraku Pte Ltd v Sunpower Semiconductor Ltd [2022] SGHC 211

Significance: This is the first time the Singapore court explained the legal basis on which: (a) a judgment granted in default of defence can be set aside in part; and (b) declarations can be made in default of defence or on admission or by consent. Goh Yihan JC explains in this judgment.

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Review of Netflix’s The Sandman: The Power of Story 

Review of Netflix’s The Sandman: The Power of Story 

Netflix’s “The Sandman” is a dark fantasy series adapted from the cult-hit graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics’s Vertigo from 1989 to 1996. 

I read the graphic novel in secondary school and was taken in by the vastness of Gaiman’s vision in upending various comic and literary genres to tell a metafiction of myths, legends and fictions. Gaiman drew from the Bible (Lucifer, Cain & Abel and God’s angels make significant appearances in the series), Greek and Norse myths, European, Asian and Islamic folk-tales, as well as Shakespeare, Dante, Blake, Milton and the likes. 

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Case: Singapore High Court on what constitutes confidential information protectable post-employment

Significance

In Asia Petworld Pte Ltd v Sivabalan s/o Ramasami [2022] SGHC 128, the General Division of the Singapore High Court (Philip Jeyaretnam J) analysed certain categories of information to determine if they were subject to implied general confidentiality obligations post-employment.  The Court affirmed a key principle that the knowledge and experience that an employee acquires during his employment is not protectable confidential information post-employment.

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