Horizon Towers saga roars back to life with new lawsuitBusiness Times – 26 Jan 2010
'According to documents filed with the High Court, these minority owners are looking to reclaim close to $1 million in legal and administrative costs which they say they’ve incurred during the lengthy fight to keep their homes.'
'They have served writs on former sales committee chairman Arjun Samtani and member Tan Kah Gee, alleging that they were ‘key players in the process leading up to the commencement, facilitation, management and finalisation of the collective sale process’.
The minorities, in their claim, allege that Mr Samtani and Mr Tan had ‘pushed for a quick sale of the property for their personal benefit’, because both had bought additional units in Horizon Towers, at the start of the collective sale process, and were keen to profit from that.'
Mr Samtani is represented by N Sreenivasan from Straits Law Practice. There's no finer counsel out there, so this SC member is well represented.
If the minority win; it would have a warning effect on anyone contemplating joining/starting a sale committee to further their own agenda. If buying up second units at the start of an en bloc does not throw a cloud of suspicion on a member's true motives, then I don't know what does. It may have happened in the past, before the Court of Appeals recommendation of full disclosure of second units etc at AGMs, but that should not absolve them from having impure motivation. Integrity does not need legislation, it is simply expected and if these minority owners can show that the two SC members acted in their own best interests only, then they have a chance at winning.
Business Times – 27 Jan 2010
I think this law suit is good in a sense, whether who wins does not matter (though I wish the minority would). It will cause the 'would be' sales committee to be very careful; that if they should want to start en bloc, either do a good job to get 100% agreement or don't even start and end up with hassle of legal tussles.
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