BS Mount Sophia Pte Ltd v Join-Aim Pte Ltd
Judge | Chao Hick Tin JA |
Judgment Date | 09 May 2012 |
Neutral Citation | [2012] SGCA 28 |
Published date | 10 November 2014 |
Year | 2012 |
Hearing Date | 07 February 2012 |
Citation | [2012] SGCA 28 |
Defendant Counsel | Tan Chee Meng SC and Quek Kian Teck (WongPartnership LLP) |
Docket Number | Civil Appeal No 143 of 2011 |
Court | Court of Three Judges (Singapore) |
Plaintiff Counsel | Lawrence Teh, Melvin See and Daniel Tay (Rodyk & Davidson LLP) |
Subject Matter | Credit and security |
This was an expedited appeal against the decision of the first instance judge (“the Judge”), ordering that an interim injunction restraining the Appellant from calling on a performance bond provided by the Respondent, which was granted on an
The Appellant was a property developer and the Respondent was a contractor. Pursuant to a building contract dated 28 February 2008 (“the Contract”), the Appellant employed the Respondent to construct a residential condominium development at 95 Sophia Road, Singapore. The contract had a value of $9,688,800. As required by the Contract, the Respondent provided the Appellant with a performance bond (“the Bond”) to secure the performance of the Respondent’s obligations under the Contract. The Bond was for the sum of $484,440, or 5% of the value of the Contract, and was provided by Liberty Insurance Pte Ltd (“Liberty”) who was not a party to the present appeal. The Bond was addressed to the Appellant from Liberty, and the relevant provisions of the Bond are as follows:
[emphasis added]
The parties did not dispute that the Bond was in the nature of an on-demand performance bond (hereafter, all references to “performance bonds” will be to such bonds,
The substance of the parties’ rights and obligations under the Bond was that Liberty was obliged to pay the Bond sum immediately upon demand by the Appellant, and was not under a duty to inquire into the circumstances underlying the demand. In particular, Liberty would not concern itself with any instruction given by the Respondent to withhold payment on the Bond. Therefore, the only way the Respondent could restrain a call on the Bond was to apply to the court for an injunction.The threshold question for the purposes of ascertaining the nature of the Bond is whether, on a true construction of that instrument, the Bank was liable to pay on demand, or only later, upon proof of breach by [the contractor-obligor] and loss by [the employer-beneficiary]. The construction process looks to the substance of the parties’ rights and obligations under the Bond;
the label adopted by the parties is inconclusive . [emphasis added]
The Appellant made a partial call on the Bond for the sum of $360,084.62 on 27 July 2011, and the Respondent applied in OS 643/2011 for an injunction pending arbitration. Before this application was heard, the Respondent successfully applied for an
The circumstances surrounding the Appellant’s call on the Bond and the contractual disputes between the parties related to the time for completion of the construction works under the Contract (“the works”) and the consequent alleged liability of the Respondent to pay the Appellant liquidated damages.
The framework contained in the Contract for determining the time for completion was as follows. The Contract provided that the Respondent had to complete the works by 1 January 2010 (“the contractual completion date”). The Architect engaged for this project was Ronny Chin & Associates, and it was the Architect who would determine if the Respondent had completed the works, and the date the works were completed (“the actual completion date”). The Architect would then issue a Completion Certificate. The Respondent could be entitled to extensions of time to complete the works if it sought the Architect’s approval, and, if the Architect granted such extensions, the contractual completion date would be modified to take the extensions into account. Crucially, it was the Architect who determined both the actual completion date and the grant of any extensions of time.
If the actual completion date was later than the contractual completion date (taking into account periods of extension), then the Architect would issue a Delay Certificate which would certify that the Respondent was in default. This Delay Certificate would entitle the Appellant to recover liquidated damages at the rate of $6,000 from the Respondent for every day of delay.
The Appellant called on the Bond on 27 July 2011 because it allegedly believed that it was entitled to liquidated damages from the Respondent for delay in the completion of the works allegedly caused by the Respondent.
The proceedings belowBefore the Judge, the Respondent’s case was that the Appellant’s call on the Bond was unconscionable because the Appellant called on the Bond despite not being entitled to any liquidated damages. The Respondent relied on its interpretation of the events prior to the call on the Bond in support of its claim. The sequence of events just prior to the Appellant’s 27 July 2011 call on the Bond, in so far as it was supported by documentary evidence, was as follows; and, in summary, there were three strands to the sequence which could be teased out from the longer yarn.
The first strand relates to the parties’ dispute on the completion date. The Architect issued a Delay Certificate
The Respondent later made a further request for an extension of time. In a letter dated 24 May 2011 to the Architect,
On 15 July 2011, the Respondent referred the dispute on the completion date and the extension of time to arbitration, pursuant to cl 37(1) of the Contract which stated,
The second strand relates to the Respondent’s...
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