SHALOM ISRAEL (ASIA-PACIFIC) LTD v TRAVEL 360 PTE LTD

Facts

Shalom Israel (Asia-Pacific) Ltd, a company limited by guarantee engaged in religious activities and run by two pastors, George and Mano, agreed in 2018 with the travel agency Travel 360 Pte Ltd to organise the Love Israel Tour 2018. Travel 360 handled logistics and collected the tour fees: S$6,500 for the longer Option A tour and S$4,900 for Option B. Shalom Israel's case was that the fees were priced on its costing list, which set aside sums per participant for a conference, its own fee, donations to an Israeli charity called Leket, and an event for Holocaust survivors, and that Travel 360 failed to pay these out, leaving Shalom Israel to make those payments itself. It also claimed the difference between business class and the fares actually paid for the pastors' flights.

Travel 360 relied on a different costing list, denied that any sums were set aside for such payments, and argued the agreement was tainted by illegality because Shalom Israel raised donations without a fund-raising permit. It counterclaimed on unpaid invoices for earlier events, flight tickets and costs of the 2018 tour, including USD 20,000 for a high tea event in Jerusalem, and for USD 10,000 it said it had lent to Shalom Israel during the tour. The case was District Court Suit No 1572 of 2020.

Issues

1. Whether the parties agreed on Shalom Israel's costing list, entitling it to reimbursement of third-party payments
2. Whether Shalom Israel was entitled to the airfares difference
3. Whether the claim was barred by illegality
4. Whether the USD 10,000 was a loan and which invoices in the counterclaim were proved

Holding

The court allowed Shalom Israel's claim in full, ordering Travel 360 to pay S$85,500 with interest at 5.33% per annum, and allowed Travel 360's counterclaim in part: S$4,474 for flight tickets, and S$7,338 and USD 21,642.68 less S$5,850 for invoices on the 2018 tour, with interest. The loan counterclaim and the remaining invoices were dismissed. Travel 360 was later ordered to pay costs of S$44,149 and disbursements of S$13,748.15.

Reasoning

Neither side had contemporaneous evidence of the early 2018 agreement, but Shalom Israel's costing list was emailed to Travel 360's staff in November 2018 without objection, Travel 360's first defence largely accepted it, and its own list surfaced more than a year later without supporting evidence of how fees were spent. The court found Shalom Israel's list was agreed and that the conference, fee, Leket and Holocaust survivors items were for its use. Its documents were consistent with having made the payments. The airfares difference was also supported by the costing list, an email and Travel 360's former solicitors' response.

The illegality defence misread Ting Siew May v Boon Lay Choo and another [2014] 3 SLR 609. Travel 360 did not identify how any illegality tainted this agreement or address proportionality, and refusing the claim would leave it holding fees it had collected. The court made no finding on whether the Charities Act was breached.

Travel 360 did not prove the USD 10,000 was a loan; its staff member's messages showed no surprise or objection, and she was not called. Invoices for earlier events failed for want of evidence of the terms agreed. The flight tickets were admitted, and the high tea payment was proved by the hotel's general manager, reduced by sums collected for that item.

From the judgment