Wish Controls Pte Ltd v Trident Water Systems Pte Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judgment Date: 31 December 2025
• Neutral Citation: [2025] SGHC 267
• Court: High Court (Singapore)
• Parties: Wish Controls Pte Ltd,Trident Water Systems Pte Ltd

Wish Controls Pte Ltd v Trident Water Systems Pte Ltd

[2025] SGHC 267

Originating Claim No 479 of 2024

Wish Controls Pte Ltd

Trident Water Systems Pte Ltd

General Division of the High Court

Choo Han Teck J

Civil Procedure - Costs

Ranjit Singh (Francis Khoo & Lim) for the claimant

Gerard Quek Wen Jiang and Glenn Chua Ze Xuan (PDLegal LLC) for the defendant.

31 December 2025

Judgment reserved.

Choo Han Teck J:

1. The judgment on the merits of this application was delivered on 18 December 2025 in Wish Controls Pte Ltd v Trident Water Systems Pte Ltd [2025] SGHC 256. This judgment is on the costs of the action.

2. On the merits, I allow the Claimant’s (Wish Control Pte Ltd) claim in its entirety. The Defendant (Trident Water Systems Pte Ltd) shall pay the Claimant $522,747.54 together with interest at 5.33% per annum from the date of the Originating Claim to the date of the judgment. On the Defendant’s counterclaim, counsel for the Defendant, Mr Gerard Quek, succeeds in proving three of the eight alleged breaches. However, because counsel was unable to prove any damage arising from these breaches, only nominal damages at $1000 per breach is awarded. Thus, I ordered the Claimant to pay the Defendant $3000 as nominal damages for its breaches.

3. Costs generally follow the event. As the Claimant has succeeded in the main action, and the Defendant has succeeded in part in its counterclaim, costs will be awarded to reflect the relative success.

4. Regarding the main action, I agree with the Claimant that guidance should be taken from the cost guidelines in the Supreme Court Practice Directions 2021 (“PD”). Appendix G (Guidelines for Party-and-Party Costs Awards in the Supreme Court of Singapore) of the PD provides a range of costs for commercial claims:

Nature of Claim	Costs
Pre-trial	Trial (daily tariff)	Post-trial Work
Commercial	$25,000–$90,000	$6,000–$16,000	Up to $30,000

5. The Claimant seeks $98,000 plus disbursements. However, in arriving at that figure, counsel for the Claimant, Mr Ranjit Singh, claims on the basis of a three-day daily tariff for the trial. This is not right as the trial lasted only one day. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the issues at trial were reasonably complex and a fair number of documents were referred to. Therefore, approximately the middle range of the costs guidelines should be adopted. Accordingly, I order...