JUDGMENT

Choong Yeow Cho J:

Introduction

[1] By way of a Notice of Appeal dated 9 December 2024, the 1st and 2nd Appellants (who were the 2nd and 5th Defendants in the Sessions Court , respectively) appealed to this Court against the decision of the learned Sessions Court Judge dated 27 November 2024, which dismissed their applications to set aside two Judgments in Default entered against them by the Respondent (the Plaintiff in the Sessions Court ) on 3 November 2022 and 30 January 2023, respectively.

The Core Issues

[2] The appeal centres on the following three issues:

• Whether the JIDs entered against the 1st and 2nd Appellants were regular or irregular;

• If regular, whether the 1st and 2nd Appellants have disclosed a defence on the merits; and

• Whether there was inordinate delay in applying to set aside the JIDs.

Proceedings In The Sessions Court

[3] In order to provide clarity and a better understanding of the issues under consideration, it is necessary to set out the chronology of events that took place in the Sessions Court . The sequence of events was as follows:

Date Event

09 August 2022 The Plaintiff (Respondent in the present appeal) filed a suit against 5 Defendants (wh