Exim & Mfr Holdings Pte Ltd v Tan Yee Ling Ivy: Account Order & Payment for Misappropriated Dividends

In a suit before the General Division of the High Court of Singapore, Exim & Mfr Holdings Pte Ltd sued Tan Yee Ling Ivy, Kau Guo Hao, Wedding Day Pte Ltd, Lam Hui Ping Fiona, and Siah Chee Wee Gary for misappropriation of funds. Exim sought an account of dividend cheques totaling $631,285.62 that were diverted to Ivy and her associates instead of the intended recipients, Mr. Ng Sin Kwee and Mdm Lee Suan Ho. The court found that Ivy had misappropriated the funds and rejected her defenses of 'secret instructions' and 'cash payments'. The court ordered Ivy to pay Exim $631,285.62 and the costs of the taking of accounts.

1. Case Overview

1.1 Court

General Division of the High Court

1.2 Outcome

Judgment for Plaintiff

1.3 Case Type

Civil

1.4 Judgment Type

Judgment

1.5 Jurisdiction

Singapore

1.6 Description

The High Court ordered Ivy to pay Exim $631,285.62 after finding she misappropriated dividend cheques. The court rejected her claims of secret instructions and cash payments.

1.7 Decision Date

25 November 2021

2. Parties and Outcomes

Party Name	Role	Type	Outcome	Outcome Type	Counsels
Exim & Mfr Holdings Pte Ltd	Plaintiff	Corporation	Judgment for Plaintiff	Won	Chia Jin Chong Daniel of Coleman Street Chambers LLC Tan Ei Leen of Coleman Street Chambers LLC Nicole Thong Wen Teng of Coleman Street Chambers LLC
Tan Yee Ling Ivy (Chen Yiling)	Defendant	Individual	Payment Ordered	Lost	Tan Hoe Shuen of Silvester Legal LLC Walter Ferix Silvester of Silvester Legal LLC
Kau Guo Hao	Defendant	Individual	Neutral	Neutral
Wedding Day Pte Ltd	Defendant	Corporation	Default Judgment Entered	Default
Lam Hui Ping Fiona	Defendant	Individual	Neutral	Neutral
Siah Chee Wee Gary (Xie Zhiwei Gary)	Defendant	Individual	Neutral	Neutral
Ng Sin Kwee	Third Party	Individual	Neutral	Neutral

3. Judges

Judge Name	Title	Delivered Judgment
Andre Maniam	Judge of the High Court	Yes

4. Counsels

Counsel Name	Organization
Chia Jin Chong Daniel	Coleman Street Chambers LLC
Tan Ei Leen	Coleman Street Chambers LLC
Nicole Thong Wen Teng	Coleman Street Chambers LLC
Tan Hoe Shuen	Silvester Legal LLC
Walter Ferix Silvester	Silvester Legal LLC

4. Facts

Ivy was the Human Resource and Finance Manager of Exim.
Ivy was in charge of Exim’s Finance Department and prepared dividend cheques.
Ivy made out four dividend cheques to third-party payees instead of Mr. Ng and Mdm Lee.
The cheque proceeds totaling $631,285.62 went to Ivy directly or indirectly.
Ivy claimed Mr. Ng gave her secret instructions to make out the cheques as she did.
Ivy claimed she paid Mr. Ng the $631,285.62 from her own cash.
The court found Ivy's claims of secret instructions and cash payments unbelievable.

5. Formal Citations

Exim & Mfr Holdings Pte Ltd v Tan Yee Ling Ivy and others, Suit No 209 of 2019, [2021] SGHC 263
Ta Tun Electrical Wire & Cable (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Toh You Kang (Zhuo Youkang) and others, , HC/S 124/2018

6. Timeline

Date	Event
2016-02-04	Ivy began employment at Exim
2016-04-08	Cheque to RABH and Gary issued
2016-04-11	Cheque to RABH deposited
2016-04-13	Ivy received $50,000 from RABH
2016-04-15	Ivy received $17,601.60 from RABH
2016-05-16	Cheque to Gary deposited
2016-05-19	Gary paid Ivy $60,000
2016-05-26	Gary paid Ivy $89,934
2017-02-07	Cheque to Ivy and Wedding Day issued
2017-02-08	Cheque to Ivy deposited
2017-04-01	Ivy resigned from Exim
2017-04-27	Cheque to Wedding Day deposited
2017-04-27	Ivy's last day of work at Exim
2020-03-01	Exim sued Ivy and others
2020-05-01	Default judgment entered against Wedding Day
2020-07-07	Gary's Affidavit dated
2021-08-02	Trial began
2021-10-22	Trial concluded
2021-11-26	Judgment reserved

7. Legal Issues

Breach of Fiduciary Duty
- Outcome: The court found that Ivy, as a fiduciary, breached her duty by taking the cheque proceeds for herself.
- Category: Substantive
- Sub-Issues:
  - Misappropriation of funds
  - Failure to account
Taking of Accounts
- Outcome: The court ordered Ivy to pay the amount certified due on the taking of accounts.
- Category: Procedural

8. Remedies Sought

Account
Monetary Damages

9. Cause of Actions

Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Misappropriation of Funds

10. Practice Areas

Commercial Litigation

11. Industries

No industries specified

12. Cited Cases

Case Name	Court	Affirmed	Citation	Jurisdiction	Significance
Browne v Dunn	N/A	Yes	[1893] 6 R 67	N/A	Cited regarding the rule that a witness must be cross-examined on a point before it can be argued that they should be disbelieved.
Goh Say Hun v Ooi Chit Lee	Court of Appeal	Yes	[1994] 1 SLR(R) 958	Singapore	Cited for the principle that a trustee is obliged to make good any amount they have failed to account for, and an order for payment is appropriate.

13. Applicable Rules

Rule Name
Order 43 r 1 of the Rules of Court

14. Applicable Statutes

Statute Name	Jurisdiction
Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) s 406	Singapore

15. Key Terms and Keywords

15.1 Key Terms

Dividend cheques
Misappropriation
Fiduciary duty
Secret instructions
Cash payments
Taking of accounts
Third-party payees

15.2 Keywords

misappropriation
fiduciary duty
account
dividends
Singapore
High Court

17. Areas of Law

Area Name	Relevance Score
Duty to Account	90
Equity	85
Fiduciary Duties	80
Remedies	75
Contract Law	30
Civil Procedure	25
Corporate Finance	20
Corporate Law	20

16. Subjects

Trusts
Equity
Fiduciary Duty
Accounting
Civil Litigation