FORELAND SINGAPORE PTE. LTD. & Anor v IG ASIA PTE. LTD.

Case Significance

Foreland Singapore Pte Ltd and another v IG Asia Pte Ltd [2024] SGHC 179 was a decision of the General Division of the High Court delivered by Goh Yihan J on 11 July 2024 in Suit No 369 of 2022, with judgment reserved after hearings across 16-19, 23-26 and 30-31 January, 1 February and 11 April 2024. The plaintiffs, Foreland Singapore Pte Ltd and Foreland Holdings Co., Ltd., claimed against the defendant, IG Asia Pte Ltd, for damages arising from the defendant's allegedly wrongful reversal of the plaintiffs' closing nickel trades made on 8 March 2022 (the "Foreland Closing Trades" or "FCTs").

According to the judgment, the plaintiffs had instructed the defendant to execute the FCTs, which the defendant did, after which the plaintiffs sought to withdraw moneys in their associated accounts, including profits from the FCTs. The defendant declined to do so on the basis that the London Metal Exchange had, in an extraordinary turn of events, suspended nickel trading and cancelled all nickel trades conducted on 8 March 2022, and the defendant instead reversed the FCTs. The catchwords frame the issues around a force majeure clause and whether the force majeure event rendered compliance "impossible or impracticable", the binding effect of a verification clause on the issuer of a statement of account, causation in a claim for damages, and the application of the reasonableness test under ss 3 and 11 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (2020 Rev Ed). The plaintiffs were represented by counsel from DOP Law Corporation and Wong Tan & Molly Lim LLC, and the defendant by counsel from Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP, including Mr Harish Kumar s/o Champaklal.