Abstract:
In Innovative Corp Pte Ltd v Ow Chun Ming [2020] 3 SLR 943, the Singapore High Court restated the law regarding company directors’ post-termination obligation not to obtain for themselves any business opportunity which properly belongs to their former company. In so doing, the High Court reframed Laskin J’s oft-cited statement in Canadian Aero Service Ltd v O’Malley (1973) 40 DLR (3d) 371 at 382 as three distinct conditions that must be cumulatively satisfied for a finding of breach. This comment welcomes the High Court’s attempt to streamline the law, but questions whether it is appropriate for Laskin J’s statement to be distilled into three cumulative requirements, as opposed to remaining as a general statement of principle.