SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Benedict Teo, Kelvin Tan, Kong Man Er and Shumin Lin, Drew & Napier LLC
within 14 days from the date of judgment or order to be appealed. Generally, the appellant must at the time of filing the Notice of Appeal provide security for the respondent’s costs. Appeals Against Decisions of the General Division of the High Court Generally, where permission to appeal is required, the application should be made directly to the Court of Appeal or the Appellate Division. An application for permission to appeal against a decision of the General Division of the High Court must be filed as follows: • where no request is made for the judge to hear further arguments, within 14 days after the date of the judge’s decision on all matters, including costs; and • where a request is made for the judge to hear further arguments, within 14 days after the judge affirms, varies or sets aside the decision after hear- ing the further arguments, or certifies or is deemed to have certified that no further arguments are required. A party that has obtained permission of court to appeal must file and serve a Notice of Appeal within 14 days after the date of the decision granting permis- sion to appeal. Where permission to appeal is not required, parties seeking to bring an appeal from the General Divi- sion of the High Court must file and serve a Notice of Appeal within the timelines prescribed by the ROC. At the time of filing the Notice of Appeal, the appellant must provide security for the respondent’s costs of the appeal. When Time Starts to Run In the case of appeals against decisions made by a judge arising from matters in an SAPT, unless the court orders otherwise, the time for filing an appeal and for filing an application for permission to appeal does not start to run until the judge has heard and determined all matters before them, including the issue of costs.
Where the lower court does not hear and determine the issue of costs within 30 days after the lower court has heard and determined all other matters in the application or all other matters in the trial (as the case may be), the time for the filing of an appeal or for the filing of an application for permission to appeal starts to run after the expiry of the 30-day period, even if the lower court has directed that submissions on costs be made. The lower court is deemed to have heard and determined the issue of costs when it has decided on the parties’ entitlement to costs (even if the amount of costs or disbursements has not been determined), ordered that costs be assessed, ordered that costs be reserved, or decided that there is to be no order as to costs or that each party is to bear its own costs. Appeals before the Singapore courts do not operate as a stay of proceedings. 10.4 Issues Considered by the Appeal Court at an Appeal Standards of Review An appellate court generally rehears the case on doc- uments alone. It will correct any misapplication of the law but will not ordinarily disagree with the trial judge’s findings of fact. It is entitled to reverse the trial judge’s findings of fact when they are manifestly wrong, and any advantage the trial judge enjoyed by having seen and heard the witnesses is not sufficient to explain the trial judge’s conclusion. An appellate court may intervene where the inferences drawn by a trial judge are not supported by the facts on record, and may assess the credibility of witnesses based on internal inconsistencies in their testimony, or on the external inconsistency between their evidence and the extrinsic objective facts. A judge in chambers decides appeals from registrar’s decisions as though the matter is before the court for the first time. In procedural matters, the appel- late court will allow the lower court maximum auton- omy and intervene only if substantial injustice will be caused otherwise. New Points on Appeal An appellate court would only allow a new point to be argued in exceptional circumstances. A party wishing
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