More Parties Fight To Get In On Horizon Towers’ Appeal

Source : The Straits Times, Saturday, September 29, 2007

Hearing delayed as judge has to decide if HPL, fresh group of owners can take part

IT HAD all the elements of a classic courtroom drama - big bucks at stake, anxious owners and more lawyers than you could poke a stick at - but yesterday’s Horizon Towers hearing was far from a stirring showdown.

The owners had gone to the High Court in a bid to overturn a Strata Titles Board (STB) ruling that aborted the collective sale of their Leonie Hill estate.

But lengthy argument involving a scrum of legal eagles - at least four senior counsel and six law firms turned up - over who could actually be involved in the proceedings threw a hefty spanner in the works.

Two groups wanted to be included but four other parties protested.

After about three hours of legal to and fro, Justice Choo Han Teck is expected to rule on Monday whether these groups can take part, which will mean the actual appeal hearing can start.

It centres on the STB’s Aug 3 ruling that the sale application for the 210-unit condo was defective due to procedural errors.

The majority owners who signed the sale deal, represented by senior counsel Chelva Rajah from Tan, Rajah & Cheah, want that decision overturned.

But two other parties said they wanted to have their say as well.

One is a group of individuals - including pop star Ho Yeow Sun and her husband, Kong Hee - who own 13 units. All signed the sale deal and said they wanted to participate in the hearing to ensure the sale goes through.

The other is the consortium led by Hotel Properties (HPL) that signed the $500 million deal in February to buy the estate.

It maintains that the appeal outcome could affect the breach of contract suit it filed against the majority owners last month claiming lost profits of $800 million to $1 billion from the botched deal.

It had that suit adjourned on Thursday after the owners extended the sale deadline to Dec 11 but it is still ‘alive’.

Its lawyer, Mr K. Shanmugam from Allen & Gledhill, argued that if the court ruled that the STB was wrong, it could be used by majority owners to ‘white-wash’ their alleged breach of contract.

‘We, the purchaser, are the only real parties interested in seeing this contract through,’ he said.

This rankled Mr Rajah, who argued that the majority owners were trying to get an appeal against the STB decision in order to fulfil the contract.

The consortium’s application irked the group of more than 30 owners at court. At one point, murmurs of discontent rose from the gallery when Mr Shanmugam rose to speak.
Meanwhile, three separate lawyers for the minority owners who did not sign the sale agreement argued against the two groups joining the proceedings. They said it was unnecessary and would raise costs for everyone.

An owner, 53-year-old real estate developer Victor Ow, said later that he had not expected things to get so complicated.

‘All of us like to be treated fairly…We shouldn’t, as owners, be known in the market as greedy and as villains.’