Our Notable Cases

Omae Capital Management Pte Ltd v Tetsuya Motomura [2015] SGHCR 8

Case Summary

This case delves into various issues of employment law as well as civil procedure. However, as the issues of employment law were largely a factual exercise relating to the admitted evidence, this case summary will instead focus on the civil procedural aspect.
However, one important issue under employment law that was discussed is whether the employment of an employee is considered terminated by the employer if he was forced to submit his resignation letter. The Court held that as the defendant in this case was forced to send an e-mail of resignation after he was notified that his employment was terminated with immediate effect, the defendant cannot be said to have been resigned but instead he was dismissed by the plaintiff without notice and hence, was entitled to 3 months’ salary in lieu of notice as per their employment contract.
The Court held that in order to assess whether service of a writ on a foreign defendant is regular, the Court will look at whether the service was considered valid in that foreign jurisdiction. The Court also referred to the High Court case of ITC Global Holdings Pte Ltd v ITC Ltd [2011] for the principle that the Court has the residual discretion to cure irregularities in service. However, this discretion is largely based on all the circumstances of the case. The Court also listed three main factors to decide whether to exercise its discretion, namely that whether the defendant was apprised of the proceedings, whether the plaintiff had done all he could to effect service and lastly whether the plaintiff would be unduly prejudiced should the Court refuse to cure the irregularities in service.

Conclusion

The Court dismissed the plaintiff’s claims and gave judgement in favour of the defendant’s counterclaims.

View Reported Judgement

https://www.elitigation.sg/gd/s/2020_SGHC_126