SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Foo Yuet Min, Kong Man Er, Shumin Lin and See Chern Yang, Drew & Napier LLC
• it discloses no reasonable cause of action or defence; • it is an abuse of process of the court; or • it is in the interests of justice to do so. The viability of a striking-out application in respect of the whole of an action or defence should be considered at the time of submission of the SAPT. No affidavits are filed if the applicant’s sole basis is that the pleading discloses no reasonable See 4.2 Early Judgment Applications . Judg- ment on admission of facts is available where a party has made admissions of fact in pleadings or other documents on which the applicant can capitalise to obtain a judgment or order in its favour. Furthermore, the court has the power to summarily determine any question of law or con- struction of any document arising in any cause or matter at any stage of the proceedings. Such applications should be considered at the time of submission of the SAPT. 4.4 Requirements for Interested Parties to Join a Lawsuit Any person seeking to be added as a party to an action may attend a case conference, if the person is aware of it, or may seek a case confer- ence by letter addressed to the court and copied to all the parties. 4.5 Applications for Security for Defendant’s Costs A defendant may apply for security for costs to be provided by a claimant. Such an appli- cation should ideally be considered at the time of submission of the SAPT but may be made by summons supported by an affidavit as and cause of action or defence. 4.3 Dispositive Motions
when the applicable circumstances arise. At a minimum, the defendant must demonstrate that the claimant: • is ordinarily resident out of the jurisdiction; • is a nominal claimant or is being funded by a non-party, and there is reason to believe that the claimant will be unable to pay the defend- ant’s costs if ordered to do so; or • has changed its address during the course of the proceedings with a view to evading the consequences of the litigation, or the address is not stated or is incorrectly stated in the originating process. The court may decline to exercise its discretion to order security for costs where it would not be just to do so. Where the claimant is a corporation, the court may order security for costs if there is credible evidence that it will be unable to pay the defend- ant’s costs if the defence succeeds. 4.6 Costs of Interim Applications/ Motions Costs are entirely at the discretion of the court. Generally, a successful party will receive its costs unless there are special reasons for not awarding such costs. The courts can have regard to, inter alia, the scales of costs in the ROC and judge-issued costs guidelines in Appendix G of the Supreme Court Practice Directions. The court may decide to determine costs at a later stage of the pro- ceedings. 4.7 Application/Motion Timeframe Most interlocutory applications are heard with- in two to three months after being filed. The applicant can request urgent timelines where
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