Key takeaways:
- In 2022, a local Chinese court in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, ruled to recognize and enforce a monetary judgment made by the Singapore State Courts, as highlighted in one of the typical cases related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) recently released by China’s Supreme People’s Court (Shuang Lin Construction Pte. Ltd. v. Pan (2022) Zhe 03 Xie Wai Ren No.4)).
- The case highlights the importance of proper legal summons even in absentia judgments, ensuring due process in cross-border disputes.
In the case of Shuang Lin Construction Pte. Ltd. v. Pan, Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court, Zhejiang (the “Wenzhou Court”), ruled in favor of recognizing and enforcing a judgment made by the Singapore State Courts on 23 Aug. 2020. (See the Wenzhou Court’s ruling (2022) Zhe 03 Xie Wai Ren No.4((2022)浙03協外認4號)
On 15 May 2020, Shuang Lin Construction Pte. Ltd. (“Shuang Lin”), a company incorporated in Singapore, filed a lawsuit against Pan, a Chinese citizen, in the Singapore State Courts over a civil loan dispute.
Shuang Lin’s lawyers served a summons on Pan. As Pan did not appear in court, the Singapore State Courts made a judgment on 23 Aug. 2020, ordering Pan to pay Shuang Lin SGD 118,225.8 (approx. USD 89,035.8) plus interest.
Subsequently, Shuang Lin applied to the Wenzhou Court, the court of Pan’s domicile, for recognition and enforcement of the aforementioned civil judgment.
Upon review, the Wenzhou Court held that:
(1) Although China and Singapore have not concluded or jointly signed any international treaties regarding the mutual recognition and enforcement of effective judgments, the Singapore High Court has previously enforced civil judgments of Chinese courts. Based on the principle of reciprocity, Chinese courts may recognize and enforce civil judgments of Singapore courts that meet the requirements.
(2) Although the judgment was rendered in absentia, Pan was legally summoned.
(3) The judgment has come into effect. It does not contradicts the basic principles of Chinese laws nor violates China’s state sovereignty, or security and public interests.
Based on these considerations, the Wenzhou Court ruled to recognize the legal force of the Singapore judgment.
In September 2023, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the fourth batch of typical cases related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The above case is the 12th case in this batch. We found a brief description of this case on the website of the China International Commercial Court, but the full text of the judgment text has not yet been found.
Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash
Contributors: Guodong Du 杜國棟 , Meng Yu 余萌
