by Poh Chu Chai LLB (Sing), LLM, LLD (Lond)
As
we move into the new millennium, it may be said that the legal fraternity in
Singapore is gradually taking the increasing number of published works on local
law for granted. There are now books written, particularly in the last decade,
on a myriad area of the law, including civil and criminal procedure, conflicts,
property law, family law and bankruptcy law by academics from the Faculty of Law
of the National University of Singapore, the School of Business (Legal Division)
of the Nanyang Technological University and private practitioners.
This is indeed
a welcome change. Yet, just two decades ago in the 1980s, there was almost a
dearth of local legal texts dealing with substantive legal issues. In this
dearth, Poh Chu Chai’s Law of Banker and Customer, first published in 1989, was a rare
relief. The first edition of the book quickly became the staple of many a law
student and the banking law practitioner. Poh Chu Chai’s first edition was
written in a succinct and easy to read fashion. He has maintained the same
succinct and easily digestible style in his latest edition of Law of Banker and
Customer.
This latest
edition is the fourth edition, which states the law in this area as at April
1999. In the intervening four years and two months between the third and fourth
editions, there has been a significant number of decisions emanating from the
local, Malaysian and English courts. The latest edition is therefore timely.
Over the years,
the depth of coverage in the book expanded so that when the third edition was
published in 1995, it was split into two volumes, with the first known as The
Law on Banker and Customer, and the second as Pledges, Guarantees and Letters of Credit. With the publication of
the fourth edition, the two volumes now stand as separate books in their own
right.
As with
previous editions, Poh Chu Chai begins by identifying in some detail what a bank
is, what the scope of banking business is and who the customer is. He then
considers the relationship between the banker and the customer. Numerous
examples are cited to explain the relationship. The most notable of these arises
out of the recent case Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association v Herman Iskander
[1998] 2 SLR 265. This case, which
inter alia considered the duration of the banker and customer relationship, is
given detailed coverage at pages 59 and 89 of the book.
Following this,
the various types of accounts that may be opened with a bank is examined. In his
discussion on deposit accounts, the author discusses the very recent decision of
the Singapore High Court in Damayanti
Kantilal Doshi v Indian Bank [1999] 2 SLR 306, where the court held amongst
other matters that time did not start to run against the bank in relation to a
demand for a time deposit where there were special terms in the contract between
the parties requiring the depositor to produce a receipt first.
Having thus set
the stage on the law of banker and customer, the author proceeds to fill out the
nitty gritty details. In this regard, the all important issue of the
customer’s mandate and the events affecting this are discussed. One point
which the author picks up on is in relation to the award of substantial damages
without proof of actual damages. The latest decision on this point is the
English Court of Appeal decision of Kpohraror v Woolwich Building Society [1996] 4 All ER 119.
Appropriately,
following this discussion on mandate, Poh Chu Chai discusses, over the course of
150 pages, the all important issue of Mareva injunctions. The author himself
notes that this is a rapidly growing area of law. There have been a fair number
of local as well as Malaysian cases dealing with Mareva injunctions in the last
three years. A significant development in this regard is the extension by the
Singapore courts of the Mareva jurisdiction to an action for libel. The
Singapore cases in this regard are Lee
Kuan Yew v Tang Liang Hong (No 1) [1997] 2 SLR 819 and Lee
Kuan Yew v Tang Liang Hong (No 2) [1997] 2 SLR 833. The Malaysian court has
similarly extended the Mareva jurisdiction to a defamation action in Dato Kam Woon Wah v Mohd Abdul Jalil bin Sarip [1998] 2 MLJ 201.
Apart from an extension of the jurisdiction, the Malaysian Court of Appeal in
the 1998 decision of Biasamas Sdn Bhd v
Kan Yan Heng [1998] 4 CLJ 754 had occasion to revisit the elements which
constitute a good arguable case in the context of Mareva injunctions. The author
discusses this case at pages 413 and 414.
Still on the
topic of Mareva injunctions, the author has included recent Singapore and
Malaysian cases dealing with the risk of dissipation of assets as support for
the application for a Mareva injunction. These cases are Judith Prakash J’s
decision in Meespierson NV v Industrial & Commercial Bank of Vietnam [1998]
2 SLR 632, the Singapore Court of Appeal decision in Choy Chee Keen Collin v Public Utilities Board [1997] 1 SLR 604, and
the Malaysian decision of Seema
Development Sdn Bhd v Mah Ki Chye [1998] 1 CLJ 174.
A discussion on
the banker’s duty of confidentiality follows. This is perhaps the only area of
law in the book which does not receive as in-depth an analysis as this reviewer
would have liked. Having said this, however, the law on the banker’s duty of
confidentiality, including the commonly known bankers’ book exception, can
very easily form a separate treatise. Hence, to deal with it at any length in a
book on banker and customer may generally not be possible. The author in his
traditional thoroughness in coverage also picks up on all the amendments made to
the Banking Act in 1998 and includes these in the discussions.
The final two
chapters of the book discusses the duties and responsibilities of the paying
banker and the collecting banker. To discuss these issues in 200 pages is indeed
no mean feat, given that the discussion is thorough.
All in all, Poh
Chu Chai’s latest edition of the Law of
Banker and Customer maintains the usefulness that has come to be associated
with the book, both to the banking practitioner and to the banking law student.
It is a book which has detailed factual coverage of all-important (if not every
single case in this area) cases on banker and customer in a single treatise. It
has become the first book on banker and customer that is picked up by anyone
researching any issue on law of banker and customer in Singapore.
Kala Anandarajah
Rajah & Tann