SIR CORNELIUS SEAN SULLIVAN V HILL CAPITAL PTE. LTD. & ANOR

Case Significance

Sullivan, Sir Cornelius Sean v Hill Capital Pte Ltd and another [2024] SGHC 157 was a decision of the General Division of the High Court delivered by Chua Lee Ming J on 20 June 2024 in Originating Application No 820 of 2023 (Registrar's Appeals No 14 and 15 of 2024). The first and second respondents had applied in HC/SUM 2819/2023 to stay the originating application on the ground that Cyprus was the more appropriate forum; the Assistant Registrar dismissed that application, and the respondents appealed in HC/RA 14/2024 and HC/RA 15/2024.

As explained in the judgment, the case involved trust deeds that permitted the trustees to change the proper law and the forum for administration of the trusts, raising the question of which proper law and forum applied to alleged breaches where the proper law and forum had been changed after the alleged breaches. The applicant, Sir Cornelius Sean Sullivan, was a purported beneficiary of a trust created by his late father, Mr Joseph Sullivan; the first respondent, Hill Capital Pte Ltd, was a Singapore trust company, and the second respondent was Ms Ban Su Mei. The applicant was represented by counsel from Drew & Napier LLC and the respondents by Davinder Singh and Tan Chee Meng, with counsel from Davinder Singh Chambers LLC and WongPartnership LLP.