The Pines owner had no intention of informing members of site's sale: Plaintiffs

Singapore

THE lawyers for the plaintiffs in the suit by members of The Pines on Thursday tried to show that motoring tycoon Peter Kwee's company Exklusiv Resorts had no intention to inform members of The Pines that property developer Oxley Holdings had kick-started the process to purchase the premises at 30 Stevens Road in March 2013. Exklusiv Resorts is the owner of The Pines club.

On day three of the hearing, Jeffrey Leong, former general manager of The Pines from 2008 to 2018, took the stand and recalled that on the Saturday morning when the story of Oxley's purchase ran in the media, he was at the club grounds and several members asked him about the implications of the sale after having read about it in the news.

Mr Leong then received a call from Mr Kwee informing him that even though the club [plot on which the club sat] was sold, they would develop a club and manage it themselves, so he could reassure members that "the club is still there, it is going to be managed by Exklusiv Resorts". Mr Kwee added that none of the staff will lose their job.

Mr Leong also told the court that for about a month and a half, members rang up the membership department enquiring about the Oxley sale, and members he bumped into at the club also approached him with questions.

However, asked by plaintiffs' counsel Lau Kah Hee whether he discussed with Mr Kwee about the need to put up a notice on the board or inform members through other means, he said he did not.

In relation to a 2012 dialogue session, in response to questions about whether pictures he received from the architect, AM Architects, through Mr Kwee, contained information about clubhouse dimensions, which he was supposed to add into his presentation, he said he could not remember.

However, he assumed that the new clubhouse would have sufficient capacity to cater to the 1,490 club members. He also could not recall if the plans at the time showed a three- or four-storey clubhouse.

He, however, stressed that those plans were preliminary and the objective of the dialogue was to elicit feedback from the 91 members present. Therefore, he decided not to distribute the slides to members not present at the session.

In his opening remarks, defence lawyer Foo Xian Fong maintained that there has been no breach of contract, nor deceit or negligence.

In the area of deceit, he sought to show that the defendants had fully intended to continue operating at the premises, but subsequent instructions from the Urban Redevelopment Authority made it impossible to do.

The defendants are represented by Rajah & Tann, while the plaintiffs - now expanded to 170 - are represented by BC Lim & Lau LLC.

The hearing resumes on Monday.