4. Administration of insolvent estates, and winding up of companies. Bankruptcy rules to prevail
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2021. 4 amendments in all.
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.
action
“action” means an action brought in Singapore.(4) Nothing in sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 shall affect any case where the debt in question became due or, as the case may be, the damage in question occurred before 1 January 1999.(5) A person shall not be entitled to recover contribution or be liable to make contribution in accordance with section 15 by reference to any liability based on breach of any obligation assumed by him before 1 January 1999.(6) The right to recover contribution in accordance with section 15 supersedes any right, other than an express contractual right, to recover contribution (as distinct from indemnity) otherwise than under sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 in corresponding circumstances; but nothing in sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 shall affect —(a)any express or implied contractual or other right to indemnity; or(b)any express contractual provision regulating or excluding contribution,which would be enforceable apart from sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 (or render enforceable any agreement for indemnity or contribution which would not be enforceable apart from sections 15, 16, 17 and 18). A person is liable in respect of any damage for the purposes of sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 if the person who suffered it (or anyone representing his estate or dependants) is entitled to recover compensation from him in respect of that damage (whatever the legal basis of this liability), whether tort, breach of contract, breach of trust or otherwise). References in sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 to an action brought by or on behalf of the person who suffered any damage include references to an action brought for the benefit of his estate or dependants. For the purposes of sections 15, 16, 17 and 18 —(a)“dependants” has the same meaning as in section 20; and(b)except in section 15(5),
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 the opinion of the court, the fact that the court has no jurisdiction apart from subsection (10A) in relation to the subject matter of the proceedings in question makes it inappropriate for the court to make the order; or
the proceedings concerned are not capable of giving rise to a judgment which may be enforced in Singapore.
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 —
a warrant for the arrest of property; or
provision for obtaining evidence.
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.