Danny Chua

Industry Sector Expertise

Danny specialises in Shipping & Admiralty Law and his areas of work include shipping disputes on charterparties, Offshore Oil & Gas, casualties at sea, bunker disputes and contamination of liquid cargo, as well as shipping transactional work such as shipbuilding, ship financing, sale & purchase and registration of vessels.

Danny’s areas of practice include shipping disputes on charterparties, casualties at sea, offshore oil & gas, bunker disputes and contamination of liquid cargo, as well as shipping transactional work such as shipbuilding, ship financing, sale & purchase and registration of vessels. He acted for bunker suppliers in the consolidated and landmark case of Precious Shipping Public Co Ltd and others v. OW Bunker Far East (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2015] 4 SLR 1229.

Most recently, he has been advising and acting for the Judicial Managers of Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd following the collapse of Hin Leong Trading and Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd in the sale of tankers belonging to the Xihe Holdings group of companies.

Practice Areas

> Shipping, International Trade and Logistics

> Dispute Resolution

Career

Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Arts’ 2nd Class Upper Honours Degree in law and upon being called to the English Bar at Gray’s Inn, Danny returned to Singapore where he commenced practice with Messrs Godwin & Co, then the leading Shipping & Maritime law firm in Singapore before joining Messrs Khattar Wong & Partners in 1989 where he was a partner and Head of the Shipping Department.

Danny has been consistently ranked as a Leading Individual in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for ‘Shipping’ practice area, most recently in the 2022 Edition. He was commended by his clients as their “go-to” Singaporean lawyer. He always responds promptly and will supply detailed advice as soon as he is able.” and that he stood out for “[h]is knowledge of the law in this particular field of expertise as well as his in-depth knowledge of the SE Asia markets and pragmatic approach to the matter at hand.”

Danny was also listed in the Euromoney Legal Group Guide to the World’s Leading Shipping & Maritime Lawyers. He was also ranked in Benchmark Litigation’s Asia Pacific Guide 2019 as a “Dispute Resolution Star” in Shipping. He has also been recognized as one of Singapore’s Top 100 Lawyers in 2019 by Asian Business Law Journal based on industry & peer nominations.

Professional Memberships

Danny has served in the International Bunker Industry Association (Asia) Executive Committee since its establishment in Singapore in 2005 and latterly has been appointed as a director of IBIA (Asia).

Publications

Danny has published the following articles on Corporate Securities Law:

The Common Law Approach To Insider Trading [1983] 1 MLJ cxliv;

Statutory Approach to the Control of Insider Trading [1983] 1 MLJ cxliv;

In 2007, Danny also co-authored the inaugural edition of the Admiralty Practice, Chapter XL VII, Atkin’s Court Forms, Singapore Issue 3, 2007.

Work Highlights

Cases that have become leading authorities are:

> Court of Appeal decision on Sheriff’s Expenses (The “Euroexpress”[1988] SLR 67);

> Court of Appeal decision on Forum Non Conveniens (Oriental Insurance Co Ltd v. Bhavani Stores Pte Ltd[1998] 1 SLR 253);

> Shiprepairers’ Liability as Bailee (The “Wilson Ruby”[1998] 3 SLR 45);

> Scope of the wording of a letter of undertaking (The “ICL Raja Mahendra”[1999] 1 SLR 329);

> Court of Appeal decision on Limitation of Liability under a freight-forwarder’s Airway Bill (“Powermatic-Apcom Systems Pte Ltd v. Concord Express (S) Pte Ltd”[1999] 3 SLR 513);

> Court of Appeal decision on Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause (The “Jian He”[2000] 1 SLR 8);

> Court of Appeal decision on Effect of an “unless order” and its impact on subsequent orders in the same proceedings (The “Bonito”[2001] 3 SLR 32);

> Mareva injunction and risk of dissipation of assets (Transfield Shipping Inc. Panama v. Sino-Add (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2001] SGHC 239);

> Effect of an “in principle” agreement to settle, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal (ATS Specialized Inc t/a ATS Wind Energy Services v. LAP Projects (Asia) Pte Ltd) [2012] SGHC 173);

> Interpleader relief and the effect of a retention of title clause (Precious Shipping Public Co Ltd and others v. OW Bunker Far East (Singapore) Pte Ltd and others and other matters [2015] 4 SLR 1229); and

> Beneficial ownership of a vessel pending de-registration from her former registry (The “Min Rui” [2016] 5 SLR 667).

He was previously appointed by BP Shipping Ltd as Counsel before a Committee of Inquiry investigating into the cause of a flash fire which occurred on board the vessel “British Adventure”.

He has also successfully conducted a trial, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal, on a dispute relating to the installation and design of a three dimensional metal ceiling system at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (Gema Metal Ceilings (Far East) Pte Ltd v. Iwatani Techno Construction (M) Sdn Bhd [2000] SGHC 37).

Awards