Brendan Siva

On the court record

Brendan Siva appears in the reported judgments as a company and defamation-litigation practice, working across the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) and appearing most often as respondent or plaintiff. Company law is a defining strand of its corpus, including a derivative action in which the breach of directors' fiduciary duties was alleged under sections 213 and 214 of the Companies Act 2016 — the statutory duties of a director to act in good faith and in the company's interests — in a matter involving a pharmaceutical company, and a Court of Appeal matter on minority oppression concerning the removal of a shareholder from management with his shares locked in. The firm also appears in the transfer and consolidation of proceedings, engaging the schedule to the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. A distinct strand of the corpus is defamation, turning on whether an impugned statement was distributed or caused to be published and the consequences that follow. Its tort work includes a claim over the unlawful trespass on and occupation of land and the rights of the registered proprietor. The counterparties in the corpus include pharmaceutical, technology and property companies and individuals. Acting most often as respondent or plaintiff, the firm presents as a litigator whose corpus centres on company disputes — derivative actions and oppression — and defamation, supported by tort and civil-procedure work. The derivative-action matters are a particular feature, requiring the court to decide whether a shareholder may pursue, in the company's name, a claim that the directors have failed to bring, and the defamation matters engage the balance between reputation and the freedom to communicate, requiring proof that the impugned words were published to others and bore a defamatory meaning before any question of a defence arises, a threshold the firm's corpus shows being contested closely on the facts of what was said and to whom it was communicated.