wner of S’pore firm not personally liable for breach of test kit contract

Apex court allows appeal of owner sued by Buenos Aires government for delivery failure

- Selina Lum

The owner of a Singapore company that failed to deliver Covid-19 test kits to Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, in 2020 is not personally liable for the firm's breach of contract, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The three-judge court allowed the appeal of Mr Nicholas Eng Teng Cheng, who had been sued, together with his company, by the government of Buenos Aires, an autonomous city with a population of about 15 million.

Mr Eng was the sole director and shareholder of HN Singapore, which had entered into a contract with the Buenos Aires government in April 2020 to supply China made test kits to the city.

Both Mr Eng and the company, which has a paid-up capital of $1, were ordered by the High Court to pay about US$238,000 ($320,000) in damages to the city.

He had appealed against the decision to find him personally liable for the company's failure to deliver the goods.

The appeal centred on whether Singapore law or Argentine law should apply to what is known as the "lifting of the corporate veil", where the court disregards the separate legal personality of the company and holds its shareholders responsible.