Knowledge & Insights

The Riddick principle states that a party who discloses a document in an action under compulsion is entitled to the court’s protection against the use of the document otherwise than in that action. If a document is protected by the Riddick undertaking, it may nonetheless be used without the court’s permission due to the nature of the related enforcement proceedings for which the document is used. Otherwise, the party seeking to use the document to commence or sustain related proceedings must seek the court’s permission for the Riddick undertaking to be lifted.

In Third Eye Capital Corp v Pretty View Shipping SA & Ors [2024] SGHC 96, the General Division of the High Court of Singapore (General Division) granted the plaintiff permission to use in foreign proceedings, documents and information it had obtained from the defendants through examination of judgment debtor proceedings.

Our Partners Koh Swee Yen, SC and Lin Chunlong, Senior Associate Tian Keyun and Associate Lucas Wong acted for the successful plaintiff.

We discuss, in this update, the salient points in the General Division’s decision.

If you would like information or assistance on the above or any other area of law, you may wish to contact the Partner at WongPartnership whom you normally work with or any of the following Partners:

KOH Swee Yen, Senior Counsel
Head – International Arbitration
Partner – Commercial & Corporate Disputes
d +65 6416 6876
e sweeyen.koh@wongpartnership.com
Click here to view Swee Yen’s CV.

LIN Chunlong
Partner – Commercial & Corporate Disputes
d +65 6416 8119
e chunlong.lin@wongpartnership.com
Click here to view Chunlong’s CV.