Builders Sue Woman For Offending E-Mail

Source : The Straits Times, Nov 1, 2007

HER year-old condo unit had leaks, and when it looked like the contractor was stonewalling her in getting the problem fixed, she shot an e-mail to the condo's developer that defamed the contracting firm.

Stockbroker Goh Teng Poh, 40, is now being sued by the contractor, Hytech Builders, for damages as a result of the e-mail she sent to Ms Jenny Hong of City Developments Ltd (CDL).

Hytech is the main contractor for the Emery Point Condominium, where Ms Goh has a unit on the 15th floor.

The contractor, through its lawyers from Rajah & Tann, is claiming that her statement in the e-mail would tarnish its business reputation with CDL, a major real-estate development player here.

The case is expected to turn on the seriousness of the damage caused by the defamatory words.

Testifying yesterday, Ms Goh said she wrote the e-mail to CDL in a fit of frustration because she had the impression that Hytech was not responding to an e-mail she sent them earlier.

She was not kept in the loop about Hytech's communications with the condo's managing agent about getting the leaks fixed.

Pressed repeatedly yesterday by Hytech's lawyer Adrian Wong, Ms Goh refused to name the source from whom she got the offending opinion.

Ms Goh, represented by lawyers Adrian Tan, Wendell Wong and Sophine Chin from Drew & Napier, said it was because he was a 'valued client' of her firm and a 'good friend'.

She stood firm on this under questioning by Mr Wong, although he got her to concede that there was no legal basis for her to withhold the name of her source.

Her source is understood to be the boss of a publicly-listed construction firm.

She said she had based the offending comment - a single sentence spliced into what was otherwise an apparently innocuous e-mail - from what she had heard from her source, among other things.

She said: 'I do not want to subject him to any defamation suit for sharing his opinion with me.'

Her voice broke slightly as she added that she was not doing this 'out of disrespect for the court system'

Justice Judith Prakash made it clear the court was not condoning her stand in refusing to divulge the source.

Lawyers for both sides will present their concluding arguments today.