Siew Suet Mey

On the court record

Siew Suet Mey appears in the reported corpus as counsel in a run of construction and arbitration disputes, working across the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court. A recurring theme is the enforcement and setting aside of arbitral awards under the Arbitration Act 2005: in linked Kuala Lumpur proceedings between Pembinaan Jaya Zira Sdn Bhd and Sungai Lui Construction and Development Sdn Bhd, one party sought to enforce an award under section 38 while the other applied to set it aside, and the Court of Appeal was asked whether an award obtained on a court-ordered reference to arbitration is different in character from one made on a voluntary submission, and whether enforcement should instead have proceeded under section 24A of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. The same matters raised a contract point of some interest — whether a subcontract was an "Ali Baba" arrangement and so illegal as contrary to public policy.

Her work also reaches interim and security relief in construction finance. Acting for Pengerang Refining Company Sdn Bhd against the Sinopec engineering entities, she was engaged in an application to set aside an ex parte order touching a performance bond, where the central issue was whether the demand on the bond was unconscionable and whether an interim measure under section 11 of the Arbitration Act 2005 and security for costs were warranted. At the apex level she appeared as respondent's counsel in the Federal Court proceedings concerning the Asian International Arbitration Centre, which examined the extent of the immunity that the International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1992 confers on an international organisation, and whether that immunity answers a judicial review challenge to the Centre's statutory functions under the construction payment legislation. Taken together, the reported matters place her squarely in the specialist field of arbitration, performance bonds and construction-payment litigation.