Ong Chee Kwan

On the judicial record

A judge whose reported corpus is strongly commercial — construction and insolvency, strata management, insurance and land-fraud disputes — across both the High Court and Court of Appeal.

Justice Ong Chee Kwan sits in both the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), and the reported decisions in this corpus are strongly commercial, with construction, insurance and company disputes to the fore. Damages assessments recur, including an assessment ordered by the Court of Appeal following its declaration that a novation agreement, a repayment agreement and a guarantee were void, invalid and unenforceable. Construction and payment questions feature, including whether a supplier of goods may recover outstanding sums directly from a developer as beneficiary in the absence of a direct contractual relationship, raising privity of contract between employer and subcontractor.

A doctrinally significant appeal concerns the intersection of construction and insolvency law under the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 — the effect on a winding-up order that was itself founded upon an adjudicated debt — a question described in the judgment as of considerable importance. Strata-management disputes arise, such as the validity of a bifurcated management structure in a mixed development under the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 and the Strata Management Act 2013.

Insurance litigation is a further strand, including trials on liability where insureds claimed for loss and damage arising from a fire and the insurers disputed whether the fire was accidental or deliberately caused and whether indemnity was payable. Land fraud appears through an appeal concerning the fraudulent transfer of land by reliance on a forged settlement agreement and a forged power of attorney. Civil-procedure questions, including the proper granting of substituted service under the practice note and the recovery of sums due for goods supplied directly to a developer, also feature. The corpus reflects a judge with a firm commercial grounding across construction, insurance, company and property law, resolving each dispute on the documents, the privity between the parties, and the governing statutory scheme rather than at large.