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Lawsuits by town councils against Workers' Party MPs go to trial in October

SINGAPORE — The civil lawsuits brought by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) against Workers' Party (WP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, and Pritam Singh will be heard in High Court from Oct 1 to Nov 2.

SINGAPORE — The civil lawsuits brought by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) against Workers' Party (WP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, and Pritam Singh will be heard in High Court from Oct 1 to Nov 2.

The court dates were fixed on Monday (Aug 13) after a closed-door hearing in the High Court.

Mr Low, Ms Lim, and Mr Singh are currently embroiled in multimillion-dollar civil suits over alleged improper payments by the town councils between 2011 and 2015.

Apart from the three WP leaders, the other defendants are: AHTC councillors Mr Chua Zhi Hon, Mr Kenneth Foo Seck Guan, and Ms How Weng Fan; the town council's former managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), and its owner Mr Danny Loh, who died in 2016.

In July last year, a lawsuit was filed against them by a three-member independent panel on behalf of AHTC. It accused the MPs of setting up a faulty system that allowed the appointment of FMSS as the town council's managing agent, and made it possible for the company and/or its officers to benefit themselves.

It also claimed that the town councillors "breached their duty of care and skill ... fiduciary and/or duty of care and skill in tort" in these and other contracts.

The defendants were also asked to account for the S$33.7 million paid to FMSS and its service provider, FM Solutions & Integrated Services, and to make up for any improper payments.

In September, PRPTC launched a similar lawsuit against the eight defendants over claims and reliefs related to Punggol East constituency.

WP won the Punggol East single-member constituency in a 2013 byelection, and folded it into the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council.

It lost the ward in the 2015 General Elections, and the management of Punggol East went back to PRPTC.

The PRPTC suit added that the facts and circumstances which are the subject of its claim overlap with the AHTC's claim.

At Monday's hearing, the High Court ruled that the trial between AHTC and the eight defendants will not be bifurcated. This means that the trial will be heard to determine the defendants' liabilities and damages incurred, rather than solely liability if it is bifurcated.

The court allowed the trial between PRPTC and the defendants to be bifurcated to determine the defendants' liabilities.

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