Seaspan Chartering: Case Against Chin Siew Seng

901 Words2 Pages

Seaspan Agencies Pte Ltd (“the plaintiff”) against Chin Siew Seng (“Chin”) for breach of director’s duties by allegedly (1) diverting payment of commissions due to the plaintiff and certain business opportunities to his own company and (2) procuring the payment of commissions by the plaintiff to a third party without the knowledge of the other directors. Facts In 1991, Quah Hun Kok (“Quah”), Chin and two other persons founded the plaintiff (ship agency business which required it to act as agents of ship-owners to tend to the needs of vessels and crew when they called at Singapore and for which service the plaintiff was paid agency fees) as well as Seaspan Chartering. At the end of 2003, Seaspan Chartering (ship-brokering business which required the plaintiff to act as a broker and to arrange fixtures between shipowners, charterers and/or cargo owners for which service the plaintiff was paid a commission) ceased to do business and Chin shifted the business to the plaintiff with Joanne Ho Syn Ngan (“Ho”) and Leong Mui Ling (“Leong”) joining. In the later half of 2005, Quah noticed that the transactions handled by Chin pertaining to the ship-brokering business had led to high payouts of “Address Commissions”. For each ship-brokering transaction, the plaintiff would be paid a commission by the ship-owner or carrier. Of the commissions received, the accounts revealed that the plaintiff had in turn paid out Address Commissions to certain third parties. On 13 October 2005, Chin incorporated Seaspan Singapore to carry on the business of ship-brokering with Ho and Leong joining. Legal issues (a) Did Chin breach his director’s duties by diverting commission due to the plaintiff and the ship-brokering business to Seaspan Singapore? (b) ... ... middle of paper ... ...ff’s funds to pay the third party, implying a breach of duty to act honestly. By failing to reveal the identity of the third party and having a confidential agreement with Martin Charles, Chin’s actions could not be said to have acted in the best interests of the plaintiff. Therefore, there was a breach of director’s duties in procuring the payment of the Address Commissions to Martin Charles and was liable to compensate the plaintiff a sum of $353,501.95. Lawnet.com.sg.ezp1.lib.sp.edu.sg, (2014). SPICE Login - ELISER - Library - Singapore Polytechnic. [online] Available at: http://www.lawnet.com.sg.ezp1.lib.sp.edu.sg/lrweb/search.do?subaction=lrLp2ViewCaseDetail&catCd=null&ncit=[2010]%20SGHC%2038&formattedQuery=%28breach%3CAND%3Edirector%27s%3CAND%3Eduties%29+%3CAND%3E+%28Priority+%3D+%22Y%22%29+&lrPortletId=lp2cm&catDesc=Judgments#p1_2 [Accessed 19 May. 2014].

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