Staff Seminar: The Remedial Approach to Proprietary Estoppel in Singapore

While it is clear that courts exercise remedial discretion in proprietary estoppel, there is an ongoing debate as to what remedial approach is appropriate. Should courts adopt expectation relief as the starting point, departing from this position (and thus tending towards awarding compensation for reliance loss) only where it provides a disproportionate remedy; or should compensation for reliance loss be the starting point, with expectation relief awarded only where compensation produces a disproportionate response? Moreover, how ‘disproportionate’ ought the facts of a case be before the starting point is departed from?

In the recent case of Low Heng Leon Andy v Low Kian Beng Lawrence (Administrator of the Estate of Tan Ah Ing, Deceased) (2018), the Singaporean Court of Appeal suggested that the remedial starting point was a matter of choice for claimants. This paper argues to the contrary: that the different starting points reflect substantive legal differences, and that the options present an inherently and fundamentally normative choice. That choice can only properly be made as a matter of law. The paper then evaluates the various options available, in the light of the aim of proprietary estoppel. It proposes the best option courts should adopt, which sets proprietary estoppel in its best analytical and practical light. The paper also notes some important implications which the analysis has for the future development of the doctrine in Singapore.

SPEAKER

Dr Ying Khai Liew

Ying Liew teaches and researches in private law, with a particular focus on the law of trusts, contracts, and remedies. He has published in leading international journals, including the Law Quarterly Review, Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Conveyancer and Property Lawyer, and Journal of Equity, and in edited collections. He has presented at various conferences in Australia, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Ying is the author of Rationalising Constructive Trusts (Hart Publishing 2017), which advances a structured understanding of the law of constructive trusts. He is also the author of Guest on the Law of Assignment (3rd edition, Sweet & Maxwell 2018). He previously co-authored the second edition with Professor Anthony Guest (Sweet & Maxwell 2015).

Ying joined the Melbourne Law School in 2017. He is Associate Director (Private Law) of the Asian Law Centre, and is a member of the Obligations Group. He has formerly held lectureships at King's College London and University College London, as well as visiting positions at the National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong, BPP University, and the University of Nottingham. He was also an examiner for the University of London International Programmes. Ying holds an LLB from King’s College London and a PhD from the University of Nottingham. He is an Associate of King’s College (AKC). Among Ying’s ongoing projects is a doctrinal study of the different ways in which Anglo-Australian law influences the development of trusts law in Asian-Pacific jurisdictions.

CHAIR

Associate Professor Yip Man
(SMU School of Law)