JUDGMENT

Chang Min Tat FJ (delivering the judgment of the Court):

This appeal, an appeal of small compass, is concerned only with the question whether the service of the writ on the appellant was good service.

The appellant is a foreign corporation with a registered office in Germany. It is therefore a foreign entity, and ordinarily out of the reach of the jurisdiction of the Courts of this country. At no time did it establish any office here. It had entered into a contract with the respondents for the supply of machinery. The contract was on the standard form not of the appellants but of Getz Bros & Co. Inc Kuala Lumpur, a company incorporated in Switzerland and having registered offices in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. In the contract, the words "between Getz Bros & Co. Inc Kuala Lumpur (hereinafter called the Sellers)" are in printed form. The words following "acting as agents for Getz Bros & Co. GMBH, Hamburg" are type-written as are the words describing the identity of the purchasers, the respondents. The agreement was executed in this country by a Mr. Thomas W Prunk who undoubtedly was at the relevant times the manager of the Swiss company.

Mr. Prunk was succeeded by a Mr. In