Court of Appeal disallows anti-suit injunction due to delay

27 Feb 2019

An anti-suit injunction would ordinarily be granted if a suit is brought in breach of an arbitration agreement or an exclusive jurisdiction clause unless there are strong reasons not to grant such relief. This is provided that an application for an anti-suit injunction is brought promptly, and before the foreign proceedings being sought have advanced too far.
 
Where anti-enforcement injunctions are contemplated in the scenario that a foreign judgment has already been rendered, it will not be enough simply to show that there was a breach of an agreement – there must be exceptional circumstances that warrant the granting of such an injunction. As a default position, the courts are reluctant to grant such relief on the grounds of international comity and the fact that such an injunction invariably interferes with a foreign court’s process.
 
In the case of Sun Travels & Tours Pvt Ltd v Hilton International Manage (Maldives) Pvt Ltd [2019] SGCA 10, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal against a High Court decision ordering a permanent restraint against the appellant, who originally sought to rely on a foreign judgment obtained after the respondent had obtained arbitral awards in its favour. This was because the Court of Appeal found that the anti-suit injunction was sought after considerable delay and without exceptional circumstances justifying the order of such an injunction, especially given that a foreign court judgment had already been issued.
 
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