Chan Kheng Hoe

On the court record

A construction and commercial-litigation practice centred on statutory adjudication under CIPAA and arbitration in the High Court.

Chan Kheng Hoe practises in construction and commercial litigation, appearing mainly in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) with some Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) work. The reported decisions are weighted toward building and construction disputes, and a defining strand is statutory adjudication under the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 (CIPAA). Several matters are applications by developers and contractors to enforce or to set aside an adjudication decision, and the reasons turn on the adjudicator's jurisdiction and on the grounds in the Act for refusing enforcement.

Across these decisions he appears on both sides of the record — as plaintiff and defendant, and on appeal as appellant, respondent and petitioner — reflecting a practice instructed by employers, main contractors and sub-contractors alike. Alongside the adjudication work sit contract disputes and arbitration questions: the reported matters engage the stay of court proceedings in favour of arbitration and the enforcement and setting aside of arbitral awards under the Arbitration Act 2005.

The construction cases are characteristically document-heavy. The court's reasons frequently turn on the terms of the building contract, the payment provisions and the timelines that CIPAA imposes, and on whether an adjudicator has strayed beyond the dispute referred or breached natural justice. Winding-up and other company-procedure questions also appear where a payment dispute spills into insolvency pressure between the contracting parties.

The overall profile is a specialist construction and adjudication practice, supplemented by arbitration and general commercial litigation, conducted principally at first instance in the High Court. The matters turn on the interpretation of construction contracts, the statutory adjudication regime, and the limited grounds on which the court will interfere with an adjudicator's or arbitrator's decision, rather than on any criminal or public-law dimension. It is a practice built around the payment and dispute machinery that governs the Malaysian construction industry.