JUDGMENT

Leong Wai Hong JC:

Introduction

[1] This is an application for pre-action discovery by the plaintiff to identify an intended defendant from, inter alia, a letter sent by the intended defendant to the defendant Lembaga Penilai, Pentaksir, Ejen Harta Tanah dan Pengurus Harta, ["LPPEH"] a non-party in the proposed suit.

[2] The plaintiff wants to discover the said letter and other documents in the possession of LPPEH with a view of filing a defamation suit against the sender of the letter.

[3] I allowed the application on 9 May 2022 but confined discovery to only the said letter out of two specified documents and a class of documents sought by the plaintiff. LPPEH has nonetheless appealed to the Court of Appeal. These are my Grounds of Judgment.

Background Facts

The Plaintiff's Pleaded Case

[4] The plaintiff's OS against LPPEH is for a pre-action discovery under O 24 r 7A, O 92 r 4 of the Rules of 2012 [" ROC 2012"] and the inherent jurisdiction of the Court seeking discovery of:

a) The email dated 15 March 2021 sent by Josephine Wong of LPPEH together with full details disclosing the identity and/or email address(s) of the recipient(s) and/or without any redaction thereto.

b) The let