George Seah FJ:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the High Court dated 15 July 1983 reversing a decree of the Assistant Registrar directing that summary judgment be entered in favour of the appellant/plaintiff in the sum of S$846,930 with interest and costs under O. 14 of the Rules of the High Court 1980. Before dealing with the merit of the appeal we would like to dispose of a preliminary submission on the rule of practice. In his grounds of judgment the learned Judge seems to take the view that "consideration" ought to be expressly pleaded in the statement of claim. In support of this view learned Counsel for the respondent/defendant relies on a passage appearing in para. 18/12/7 of the "White Book" which reads:

Consideration for any agreement not under seal is a material fact and must be pleaded, except in the case of negotiable instruments where it is presumed.

It was pointed out by learned Counsel for the appellant that no authority binding on this Court has been cited to support this proposition and the comment of the learned authors appears to be contrary to the specimen Court forms contained in Bullen & Leake's Precedents of Pleadings and Atkin's Court Forms, Vo