THE PALACE OF JUSTICE CIVIL APPEAL NO. P-02-2074-2011 ...

certainly owe a duty of care to the developer, their employer, to
ensure that there would be no undue delay in obtaining the CFOs. In
our judgment, in the light of the contractual arrangements of the
parties, it would not be fair to impose on the defendants a duty of
care to the purchasers with regard to the obtaining of the CFOs. In
our view, on the facts of the present case and, in particular, the
contractual arrangements of the parties, it would be apt to adopt the
following statement in the judgment of the Singapore Court of Appeal
in Man B & W Diesel (at p. 321) –
It is not for the court to help a party, after the event, to improve his
commercial bargain.
Moreover, in the present case, there is another pertinent legal
consideration: we find that the damage suffered by the plaintiffs is
purely financial in nature. The financial loss is not linked to any
personal injury or structural defects or damage to property. None of
the plaintiffs complain of any personal injury or of any structural
defects or damage to his industrial building as a result of the lateness
in obtaining the CFOs or as a result of the manner that the
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