Cachet Multi Strategy Fund SPC on behalf of Cachet Special Opportunities SP v FENG SHI & 2 Ors

Case Significance

Cachet Multi Strategy Fund SPC on behalf of Cachet Special Opportunities SP v Feng Shi and others [2024] SGHCR 8 was decided by AR Elton Tan Xue Yang in the General Division of the High Court on 19 August 2024, in Originating Claim No 10 of 2022 (Summons No 475 of 2024), with hearings on 16 and 26 July 2024 and judgment reserved. The application was brought by the claimant for the production of 14 categories of documents pursuant to O 11 r 3 of the Rules of Court 2021, against defendants Feng Shi, Alex SK Liu and Haven Global Network Pte Ltd.

The judgment addressed Order 11 Rule 5(2) of the Rules of Court 2021, which enjoins the court from ordering production of any document that is part of a party's private or internal correspondence, in any format and wherever stored, subject to two exceptions under Rule 5(2)(a) and (b): where it is a "special case" or the correspondence is a known adverse document. The judgment noted that O 11 r 5(2) was introduced in the ROC 2021 following revisions proposed by the Civil Justice Commission and has no precedent in past versions of the Rules of Court. The second defendant, as respondent in the application, objected to the majority of the requests on the basis that they related to internal correspondence and that the exceptions did not apply, and argued that six of the 14 categories were objectionable. The catchwords concerned civil procedure, production of documents, legal privilege, and private or internal correspondence. The claimant was represented by WongPartnership LLP, with counsel Ho Yi Jie, and the defendant by WNLEX LLC, with counsel Samantha Ong.