Yeoh Shim Siow & Lay Kuan

On the court record

Yeoh Shim Siow & Lay Kuan appears in the reported judgments as a housing-development and civil-litigation practice, working mainly in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) with a matter in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan). A recurring strand of its corpus is housing development under the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966, including the Schedule H statutory contract governing the sale and purchase of a parcel in a subdivided development and disputes over the delivery of vacant possession, in litigation involving a developer and its purchasers. Questions of jurisdiction recur prominently across its matters, going to whether a particular court or tribunal was the proper forum for the dispute. The firm also appears in restitution and equity, including claims founded on unjust enrichment, a total failure of consideration, dishonest assistance and knowing receipt, and in contract, including a breach-of-contract claim over the sale of goods connected to the administration of a deceased's estate and a trustee company. Its civil-procedure work includes the amendment of a writ and statement of claim to add foreign plaintiffs, an application under Order 28 rule 8(1) of the Rules of Court 2012 to convert an originating summons, and an application to set aside a winding-up order on the ground that the first order had been obtained in contravention of the proper process. The counterparties in the corpus include development, trading and trustee companies, some of them foreign-incorporated. Acting for respondents, plaintiffs, defendants, petitioners and appellants across these matters, the firm presents as a litigator whose corpus centres on housing-development and vacant-possession disputes and the restitution, contract and civil-procedure questions — jurisdiction, amendment and the setting aside of orders — that surround them, with the statutory protection of house purchasers a recurring theme. The Schedule H matters are a particular feature, since that prescribed form of contract fixes the developer's obligations to a purchaser of a subdivided parcel — including the time for delivering vacant possession and the consequences of delay — and the courts hold developers to its terms notwithstanding any contrary bargain.