Lady sued S$3m for rejecting man is countersuing for cash spent defending herself from him

SINGAPORE: A girl being sued for S$3 million by a man she rejected is countersuing him for bills she incurred to guard herself from his purported harassment.

In response to court docket paperwork obtained by CNA, Ms Nora Tan Shu Mei put in a digital door viewer, an alarm sensor and a sensible video doorbell to make sure her security from Mr Okay Kawshigan.

She is looking for damages from him for about S$480 for putting in such tools, in addition to one other S$1,000 for bills incurred whereas participating in counselling and “therapeutic” classes at his request.

She can also be looking for damages for bills to be incurred for her personal future counselling classes.

In response to a Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom judgment printed on Jan 28, Mr Okay Kawshigan launched two lawsuits towards Ms Tan after their friendship broke down and she or he instructed him that she noticed him solely as a good friend.

He sued Ms Tan within the Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom for S$22,000 in damages for breaching an settlement to enhance their relationship, however this swimsuit was thrown out. 

The deputy registrar known as the civil swimsuit an abuse of course of and mentioned the court docket wouldn’t be an adjunct to Mr Kawshigan’s “calculated try to compel engagement” from Ms Tan.

Individually, Mr Kawshigan is suing Ms Tan within the Excessive Courtroom for S$3 million for varied damages, together with trauma he allegedly suffered after discovering out that she noticed him solely as a good friend.

This swimsuit is mounted for a case convention later this month.

CLAIMS OF DEFAMATION

In response to Excessive Courtroom paperwork, each Mr Kawshigan and Ms Tan are former members of the Rotary Membership of Bugis Junction.

Mr Kawshigan is a director at drone firm D1 Racing, whereas Ms Tan is a sustainability supervisor at property developer GYP.

Mr Kawshigan’s declare towards Ms Tan arises from alleged defamatory conduct towards him from June 2019 to December 2020.

He claims she made false allegations verbally to him, with third events current who heard their conversations.

Within the alleged defamatory statements, Ms Tan purportedly mentioned she was feeling very harassed by Mr Kawshigan’s actions, which included standing in entrance of her doorstep and harassing her.

One other line that Mr Kawshigan states is defamatory is: “He’s unnecessarily serving court docket paperwork to me personally and he has not tried different methods accessible to him”.

This line was spoken by Ms Tan on Jul 8, 2022 and communicated over an amplified speaker such that different individuals close by heard what she mentioned, Mr Kawshigan claimed.

He alleged that Ms Tan’s actions induced injury to his “stellar status”, adopted by “trauma, despair and impacts to his life” over the previous 24 months.

He claimed he additionally misplaced not less than 5 enterprise partnerships, is now unable to interact in interpersonal conversations usually and has had his means to clinch contracts successfully and effectively disrupted.

The S$3 million he’s looking for from Ms Tan contains S$170,000 for his discount in total incomes capability for 2 years and S$1.2 million in lack of potential investments, contracts and payouts to his firm by tapping on the Rotary Worldwide community.

MS TAN’S DEFENCE

In defence and counterclaim papers seen by CNA, Ms Tan denied massive components of Mr Kawshigan’s claims.

In response to her, they first met as membership members of the Rotary Membership of Bugis Junction round November 2016, and have become associates.

Between November 2016 and September 2020, they started arguing and having differing opinions which led to a gradual deterioration of their friendship.

This was significantly when Ms Tan requested to scale back the frequency of communication and conferences.

After Mr Kawshigan sought clarification about their friendship, Ms Tan mentioned they had been solely associates.

After this, Ms Tan didn’t reply to Mr Kawshigan’s request to take part in mediation on the Singapore Mediation Centre in October 2020.

In October 2020, Ms Tan discovered that Mr Kawshigan had appeared exterior her house, saying that he had filed court docket paperwork however didn’t wish to serve them to her.

A girl named Ms Irene then contacted Ms Tan in November 2020, and mentioned she was Mr Kawshigan’s counsellor. Ms Tan agreed to take part in counselling classes with Ms Irene and Mr Kawshigan, however stopped doing so in Might 2021.

One other girl additionally claiming to be a counsellor invited Ms Tan to Mr Kawshigan’s “therapeutic” classes in November 2021, and she or he attended them till April 2022.

This era was interspersed with emails to Ms Tan by Mr Kawshigan’s purported legal professionals, making references to authorized motion.

The Excessive Courtroom swimsuit was filed after Ms Tan refused to talk to Mr Kawshigan any additional. The latter instructed Ms Tan’s colleague by electronic mail that Ms Tan had damaged “some floor guidelines” and that her avoidance was “forcing him to escalate”.

Ms Tan additionally obtained WhatsApp messages in July 2022 from an individual who claimed to be a journalist from Yahoo Information, alleging {that a} regulation agency companion had offered Yahoo Information with particulars of a Excessive Courtroom case.

ALLEGEDLY WENT TO HER WORKPLACE

Ms Tan, who’s represented by legal professionals from Edmond Pereira Regulation Company, is utilizing the defence of honest remark.

The phrases she uttered that Mr Kawshigan claims is defamatory, are expressions of her sincere opinion in regards to the details and issues of Mr Kawshigan’s conduct, she mentioned.

Her legal professionals wrote that she’s going to present at trial that not one of the regulation companies purportedly representing Mr Kawshigan in his correspondences with Ms Tan had been instructed by him at any given time.

Neither Yahoo Information nor its journalists had despatched the WhatsApp message to Ms Tan, she claimed.

She mentioned Mr Kawshigan’s actions had been supposed to trigger her harassment, alarm and misery and make her preserve communications with him.

Ms Tan additionally alleged that Mr Kawshigan had appeared exterior her home with a lady in July 2022, and remained exterior regardless of her requests for him to depart. He additionally allegedly positioned paperwork on her door and rattled it, that very same month.

He then approached Ms Tan’s neighbours and requested for her house phone quantity, and mentioned he would go to her office if she refused to speak with him, she alleged.

Mr Kawshigan went to Ms Tan’s office to search for her later that month, however she was not there, she alleged.

On account of the alleged harassment, Ms Tan put in a digital door viewer, a siren alarm sensor and a sensible video doorbell.

The case might be heard within the Excessive Courtroom at a later date.