Singapore | Retroactive Effect of Judgments Curtailed in Exceptional Cases Where it is Necessary to Avoid Serious and Demonstrable Injustice

In Foo Kok Boon v Ngow Kheong Shen and others and another matter [2023] SGHC 189, the High Court considered the applicable principles in relation to the doctrine of prospective overruling (where a judgment applies only prospectively). It held that there was on the facts an exceptional case for the doctrine of prospective overruling to apply because a departure from the ordinary retroactive effect of the decision of Salmizan bin Abdullah v Crapper, Ian Anthony [2023] SGHC 75 was necessary to avoid serious and demonstrable injustice to the parties at hand or to the administration of justice in general. In this update, Director Foo Yuet Min and Associate Director Wilson Koh examines this High Court decision.

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