Ministers Shanmugam, Vivian seek to serve defamation papers on Lee Hsien Yang via Facebook

CABINET ministers K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan, who are suing Lee Hsien Yang for defamation over his comments relating to their rental of two bungalows in Ridout Road, have applied to serve court papers on him by Facebook Messenger.

In court documents obtained by The Straits Times, lawyers acting for the two ministers made the application on the grounds that it was impractical to serve the court papers on Lee personally in Britain.

The lawyers, from Davinder Singh Chambers, also stated that “substituted service by Facebook Messenger will probably be effective in bringing the court papers to the notice of the defendant”.

Substituted service refers to methods of serving court papers when attempts to serve them in person have been unsuccessful.

Methods of substituted service include the posting of court documents on the front door of the defendant’s premises, sending the documents by registered post or by e-mail, or placing an advertisement in the newspapers.

The ministers are seeking a court order that the papers are deemed to have been served by sending the documents in portable document format, or PDF, by Facebook Messenger to Lee’s profile page on the social networking platform.

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The High Court had ruled in 2016 that court papers can be served through Facebook, Skype or Internet message boards on defendants who cannot be reached in person.

Shanmugam, who is Law and Home Affairs Minister, and Balakrishnan, who is Foreign Minister, had filed separate defamation suits in the High Court against Lee on Aug 2.

Lee is the younger son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The legal action arose over a public post on Lee Hsien Yang’s Facebook page made on Jul 23.

The post stated, among other things, that “two ministers have leased state-owned mansions from the agency that one of them controls, felling trees and getting state-sponsored renovations”.

Shanmugam and Balakrishnan are seeking damages and an injunction to restrain Lee Hsien Yang from publishing or disseminating the allegations, which they assert are false and defamatory.

They contend that the offending words – which meant that they had been given preferential treatment – are “false and baseless”, and “were calculated to disparage and impugn” them.

According to the court documents, their lawyers had sent a letter to Lee on Jul 27, demanding that he remove the post and all related comments. The letter also demanded that Lee post a public apology prominently on his Facebook page for four weeks.

In the letter, each minister also sought S$25,000, which they said they would donate to charity. The letter stated that the sum was a fraction of the substantial damages each minister was entitled in law to recover if they were to start legal proceedings.

After the two ministers sent him lawyers’ letters, Lee said on Facebook on Jul 29 that he was simply stating the facts. He added that the two ministers should sue him in a court in Britain, saying he was in the country at the time.

The statement of claim filed by each minister did not specify the quantum of damages sought. Generally, civil cases are filed in the High Court when the value of the claim exceeds S$250,000.

On Aug 14, the ministers’ lawyers applied to the court for permission to serve the papers on Lee “wherever he may be found in the United Kingdom”.

This application was made on the grounds that the Singapore court is the most appropriate forum to hear the case.

In affidavits giving reasons for why this was so, Shanmugam and Balakrishnan noted that they were well known in Singapore as ministers and lived in the country.

They also noted that the offending words referred to alleged events in Singapore, and that the offending words were republished in Singapore and had been accessed and read by various people in Singapore.

On Aug 16, the two ministers were granted permission to serve the papers out of jurisdiction on Lee. The court order stated that within 21 days after the papers are served on him, Lee was to file a document to indicate whether he intended to contest the claim.

On Aug 28, the ministers’ lawyers filed the application for substituted service by Facebook Messenger. THE STRAITS TIMES