Yap Boon Hau

On the court record

Yap Boon Hau's reported practice is in commercial and company litigation, with a strong line of interlocutory and enforcement work, appearing in the High Court and the Court of Appeal and acting for plaintiffs, defendants and appellants.

His injunction work includes a High Court matter concerning CJ Polymers Sdn Bhd, in which he acted for a plaintiff on an application for a Mareva freezing injunction. The court set out the requirements — a good arguable case, assets within the jurisdiction and a real risk of dissipation — and, while satisfied of the first two, held that no real risk of dissipation had been shown, observing that allegations of dishonesty alone do not indicate a risk of dissipation.

He is also engaged with the enforcement of court orders through contempt. In a matter concerning the Kuala Ibai Development group, in which he acted for a plaintiff, the question was whether a non-party to a court order can be liable for contempt by knowingly aiding and abetting its breach, whether proof of a primary breach is a prerequisite, and whether such liability can be established independently of the primary actor's guilt.

His company work includes a Court of Appeal matter concerning the Iconic Bina group, in which he acted for an appellant on the alleged misuse of the winding-up process and statutory remedies under section 351 of the Companies Act 2016, and a related interlocutory injunction on American Cyanamid principles where a liquidator had not been joined. He has also appeared for a defendant in a property dispute arising from a tenancy of land and a factory-cum-office building held under a state lease in Penang. The practice is commercial and company litigation, weighted towards freezing orders, contempt and the enforcement of the court's process. In each, the question is less about the merits of the underlying dispute than about how the court's coercive powers are deployed to hold a party to account.