The Story of 'Personal Equities' in Singapore: Thus Far and Beyond

• Main Author: LOW, Kelvin Fatt Kin
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2009
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Commercial Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/839
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The story of "personal equities" in Singapore is a fascinating one. The first successful claim of a "personal equity" outside the statutory regime in Singapore surfaced some forty years after the introduction of the Torrens system in 1956. Subsequently, the "personal equities exception" was affirmed by one Court of Appeal and rejected by another. Since then, the Singapore courts have proceeded on the basis that there is a finite list of "personal equities" listed in section 46(2) of the Land Titles Act. This article proposes to explore these developments and demonstrate that the "personal equities exception" is in truth not an exception to indefeasibility. As a matter of statutory interpretation, such claims are simply not caught in the first place by the principle of indefeasibility as conferred by section 46(1) of the Land Titles Act. As such, potential "personal equities" claims ought not to be limited by section 46(2) exclusively.