SINGAPORE – A condo council chairman who campaigned to remove his estate’s managing agent was ordered to pay $100,000 in damages after repeatedly accusing the company online of being “unprofessional” and a “joker”.
District Judge Chiah Kok Khun on Sept 25 found that chairman Tan Eng Huat had defamed CWL Facilities Management and its executive director Derek Lit Wai Choy through a series of Facebook posts and an e-mail circulated to residents and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
The judge awarded general damages of $40,000 each to CWL and Lit, as well as aggravated damages of $10,000 each, taking the total award to $100,000.
The dispute arose from Bellewoods, an executive condominium development in Woodlands. CWL had been appointed the property’s managing agent in May 2020, while Tan was chairman of the estate’s fifth management council. CWL’s appointment ended in January 2024.
The case centred on posts that Tan made in September and October 2023 on a Facebook page called “Home @ Bellewoods”, which consisted of condo owners and had almost 600 members at the time.
The posts were made ahead of Bellewoods’ sixth annual general meeting (AGM), where Tan was seeking support for a private motion involving the termination of the existing managing agent and the appointment of a new one.
In one post, he said the managing agent would “try to rebuff” his motion and “deprive us from our rights of voting”.
In another, he accused CWL’s Lit of misleading residents by providing “professional advice” on whether his motion complied with the law.
Tan later wrote: “Why waste time on this type of MA (managing agent), just vote them out?”
In a post on Oct 10, 2023, he wrote: “This MA is a joker. We are wasting our money and paying for nothing.”
Tan also sent an e-mail to various recipients, copying the BCA, accusing CWL of being “very unprofessional” and saying it should resign after “creating so much problem”.
CWL and Lit sued for defamation, arguing that the statements suggested they were dishonest, deceptive, unprofessional and involved in illegal conduct.
Judge Chiah found that the posts were defamatory because of the meaning readers would take from them in the context of the dispute.
The readers of the Facebook page were not outsiders, the judge said. They were residents who would have attended general meetings, known about the issues involving the managing agent and been aware of the role CWL played in running the estate.
“The offending words in context and in their natural and ordinary meaning are capable of (being) understood by the (condo owners) to mean that the claimants were dishonest, fraudulent or deceptive, that the claimants were unprofessional, and that the claimants were engaged in illegal conduct or acts,” the judge said in his written decision. “I therefore find that the offending words are defamatory of the claimants.”
He also noted that the posts had been published to third parties.
Tan had posted the comments on the Facebook page, making them available to residents. There were also “likes” and comments on the posts.
Tan argued in court that his comments were justified and were fair comment on matters concerning the condominium. He also argued that he had an interest in communicating concerns to other residents.
The judge rejected these arguments.
On Tan’s defence of fair comment, Judge Chiah said the Facebook posts were not merely expressions of opinion, but contained assertions of fact.
“On plain reading, they contain assertions of fact, not comments,” he said.
He added that Tan did not make clear that the statements were his opinions rather than factual claims.
The judge also rejected Tan’s defence of justification, finding that he had not shown that the allegations were true in substance and in fact.
At Bellewoods’ sixth AGM on Oct 28, 2023, Tan’s private motion was defeated, with 62 per cent of residents voting against it.
CWL was terminated as the managing agent in November 2023.
However, Judge Chiah said CWL had not proved that its termination was a direct consequence of Tan’s publications, and rejected its claim for special damages.
In assessing damages, the judge said the relevant factors included the seriousness of the allegations, the extent of publication, the defendant’s conduct and whether there was an apology or retraction.
He found that Tan’s failure to apologise or retract the posts, together with his improper motive in seeking to remove CWL, justified an award of aggravated damages.
The judge also criticised Tan’s approach in defending the defamation claim.
“The defendant has raised the gamut of defences to a claim of defamation. None of them are made out,” the judge said.
“(The) approach of defending a defamation claim by perfunctorily running through the gamut of all the elements of the tort of defamation and its defences is prolix, inefficient and indolent,” he noted.
“Such a blunderbuss approach in litigation does not serve the interests of the parties. It only results in time and costs wasting.”
