Civil Law Act 1909

This Act is the Civil Law Act 1909.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —“court” means the General Division of the High Court;“executor” means the executor or administrator of a deceased person, and includes, as regards any obligation, any person who takes possession of or intermeddles with the property of a deceased person;“will” includes a codicil.

“court” means the General Division of the High Court;

“executor” means the executor or administrator of a deceased person, and includes, as regards any obligation, any person who takes possession of or intermeddles with the property of a deceased person;

“will” includes a codicil.

In every civil cause or matter commenced in the court, law and equity shall be administered by the court in its original jurisdiction and by the Appellate Division of the High Court or the Court of Appeal according to the rules following:Claimants to have equitable relief in claims(a)if any claimant claims to be entitled to any equitable estate or right, or to relief upon any equitable ground against any deed, instrument or contract, or against any right, title or claim whatsoever asserted by any defendant in such cause or matter, or to any relief founded upon a legal right, which before 1 January 1879 could only have been given by the court on its equity side, the court shall give to such claimant such and the same relief, as ought to have been given by the court, on its equity side, in a suit or proceeding for the same, or the like purpose, properly instituted before that date;Defendants the same in defences(b)if any defendant claims to be entitled to any equitable estate or right, or to relief upon any equitable ground against any deed, instrument or contract, or against any right, title or claim asserted by any claimant in such cause or matter, or alleges any ground of equitable defence to any claim of the claimant in such cause or matter, the court shall give to every equitable estate, right or ground of relief so claimed, and to every equitable defence so alleged, such and the same effect, by way of defence against the claim of such claimant, as the court on its equity side ought to have given, if the same or the like matters had been relied on by way of defence, in any suit or proceeding instituted in the court on its equity side, for the same or the like purpose, before 1 January 1879;Defendants to have relief against claimants in suit, service and effect of service(c)the court may also grant to any defendant, in respect of any equitable estate or right, or other matter of equity, and also in respect of any legal estate, right or title claimed or asserted by him, all such relief against any claimant, as such defendant shall have properly claimed by his pleading, and as the court might have granted in any suit instituted for that purpose, by the same defendant against the same claimant before 1 January 1879 and also all such relief, relating to or connected with the original subject of the cause or matter, and in like manner claimed against any other person, whether already a party to the same cause or matter or not, who has been duly served with notice in writing of such claim, pursuant to the Rules of Court, as might properly have been granted against such person, if he had been made a defendant to a cause, duly instituted by the same defendant for the like purpose; and every person served with any such notice shall thenceforth be deemed a party to such cause or matter, with the same rights, in respect of his defence against such claim, as if he had been duly sued in the ordinary way by such defendant;Equitable rights appearing incidentally(d)the court shall recognise and take notice of all equitable estates, titles and rights, and all equitable duties and liabilities, appearing incidentally in the course of any cause or matter, in the same manner in which the court on its equity side would have recognised and taken notice of the same, in any suit or proceeding duly instituted therein before 1 January 1879;Suits not to be restrained by prohibition or injunction(e)no cause or proceeding at any time pending in the court in its original jurisdiction or in the Appellate Division of the High Court or the Court of Appeal, shall be restrained by prohibition or injunction; but every matter of equity on which an injunction against the prosecution of any such cause or proceeding might have been obtained if the Civil Law Ordinance 1878 (IV/1878) had not been passed, either unconditionally or on any terms or conditions, may be relied on by way of defence thereto;Court may grant stay of proceedings in a summary way(f)nothing in this Act shall disable the court from directing a stay of proceedings in any cause or matter pending before it, if it thinks fit; and any person, whether a party or not to any such cause or matter, who would have been entitled if the Civil Law Ordinance 1878 had not been passed, to apply to the court to restrain the prosecution thereof, or who may be entitled to enforce, by attachment or otherwise, any judgment, decree, rule or order, contrary to which all or any part of the proceedings in such cause or matter may have been taken, may apply to the court, by summons in a summary way, for a stay of proceedings in such cause or matter, either generally, or so far as is necessary for the purpose of justice; and the court shall thereupon make such order as is just;Subject as above, court to give effect to claims at law, and by custom or statute(g)subject to the aforesaid provisions for giving effect to equitable rights and other matters of equity in the manner aforesaid, the said court shall recognise and give effect to all legal claims and demands, and all estates, titles, rights, duties, obligations and liabilities by the common law or by any custom, or created by any law having force in Singapore, in the same manner as the same would have been recognised and given effect to if this Act had not been passed;Court to grant all such remedies as any of the parties are entitled to in respect of every legal and equitable claim to avoid multiplicity(h)the court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction and the Appellate Division of the High Court or the Court of Appeal, in every cause or matter pending before it, shall grant, either absolutely or on such reasonable terms and conditions as to it seems just, all such remedies whatsoever as any of the parties thereto appear to be entitled to, in respect of any and every legal or equitable claim properly brought forward by them respectively in such cause or matter; so that, as far as possible, all matters so in controversy between the said parties respectively may be completely and finally determined, and all multiplicity of legal proceedings concerning any of such matters avoided.

In the administration by any court of the assets of any deceased person whose estate proves to be insufficient for the payment in full of his debts and liabilities, and in the winding up of any company under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 whose assets prove to be insufficient for the payment of its debts and liabilities and the costs of winding up, the same rules shall prevail and be observed as to the respective rights of secured and unsecured creditors, and as to debts and liabilities provable, and as to the valuation of annuities and future and contingent liabilities respectively, as are in force for the time being under the law of bankruptcy with respect to the estates of persons adjudged bankrupt.

All persons who, in any such case, would be entitled to prove for and receive dividends out of the estate of any such deceased person, or out of the assets of any such company, may come in under the decree or order for the administration of such estate, or under the winding up of such company, and make such claims against the same as they may respectively be entitled to by virtue of this Act.

A tenant for life or lives or a leasehold tenant shall not commit voluntary waste; but this subsection shall not apply to any estate or tenancy without impeachment of waste, or affect any licence or other right to commit waste.

A tenant who infringes subsection (3) shall be liable in damages to his remainderman or reversioner; and in subsection (3), “leasehold tenant” includes a tenant for a term, a tenant under a periodical tenancy and a tenant at will.

An estate for life without impeachment of waste shall not confer, or be deemed to have conferred, upon the tenant for life any legal right to commit waste of the description known as equitable waste, unless an intention to confer such right expressly appears by the instrument creating such estate.

There shall not be any merger by operation of law only of any estate the beneficial interest in which would not before 23 July 1909 have been deemed to be merged or extinguished in equity.

A mortgagor entitled for the time being to the possession or receipt of the rents and profits of any immovable property, as to which no notice of his intention to take possession, or to enter into the receipt of the rents and profits thereof, has been given by the mortgagee, may sue for such possession or for the recovery of such rents or profits or to prevent or recover damages in respect of any trespass or other wrong relative thereto in his own name only, unless the cause of action arises upon a lease or other contract made by him jointly with any other person.

Any absolute assignment by writing under the hand of the assignor, not purporting to be by way of charge only, of any debt or other legal chose in action of which express notice in writing has been given to the debtor, trustee or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to receive or claim such debt or chose in action, shall be and be deemed to have been effectual in law, subject to all equities which would have been entitled to priority over the right of the assignee under the law as it existed before 23 July 1909, to pass and transfer the legal right to such debt or chose in action, from the date of such notice, and all legal and other remedies for the same, and the power to give a good discharge for the same, without the concurrence of the assignor.

Stipulations in contracts, as to time or otherwise, which would not, before 23 July 1909, have been deemed to be or to have become of the essence of such contracts in a court of equity, shall receive in all cases the same construction and effect as they would have received in equity before that date.

A Mandatory Order or an injunction may be granted or a receiver appointed by an interlocutory order of the court, either unconditionally or upon such terms and conditions as the court thinks just, in all cases in which it appears to the court to be just or convenient that such order should be made.

Subject to subsections (10B), (10C) and (10D), a court has the power to grant interim relief in aid of proceedings in any civil or commercial matter (excluding proceedings arising out of any fiscal, monetary or revenue law or measure) which have been or are to be commenced outside Singapore, if it appears to the court to be just or convenient that such order should be made.

An order under subsection (10A) may be made either unconditionally or upon such terms and conditions as the court thinks just.

The court may refuse to make an order under subsection (10A) if —

In subsection (10A), “interim relief”, in relation to the court before which an application is brought, means interim relief of any kind which that court has power to grant in proceedings relating to matters within its jurisdiction, other than —

If an injunction is asked, either before, or at, or after the hearing of any cause or matter, to prevent any threatened or apprehended waste or trespass, the injunction may be granted if the court thinks fit whether the person against whom the injunction is sought is or is not in possession under any claim of title or otherwise, or, if out of possession, does or does not claim, a right to do the act sought to be restrained under any colour of title, and whether the estates claimed by both, or by either of the parties, are legal or equitable.

In questions relating to the custody and education of minors, the rules of equity shall prevail.

Generally in all matters not particularly mentioned in this section, in which there is any conflict or variance between the rules of equity and the rules of the common law with reference to the same matter, the rules of equity shall prevail.