S'porean killed in Porsche accident recently sued younger brother

SINGAPORE - The 55-year-old Singaporean man who died after his Porsche plunged into a ravine in Malaysia was recently embroiled in a bitter dispute with his estranged younger brother.

Malaysia Daily The Star reported that Mr See Lam Huat's Porsche plunged into a ravine after crashing into a road divider on the Second Link highway at around 4.30pm on Sunday (July 19).

Mr See, who was heading towards Senai when he lost control of his car, died on the spot due to serious injuries. Shin Min Daily News reported that See's wife's niece was also in the car and sustained minor injuries to her legs.

In a report on June 15, The Straits Times said that Mr See Lam Huat and younger sibling See Lam Seng were once business partners but later became competitors when they set up their own businesses.

The brothers were in the same business reselling electrical goods from China to some African countries, and had even set up shops near each other.

The intense rivalry resulted in lawsuits served by both parties over a span of a few years.

The See siblings were initially business partners in a company called S H Econ Electrical Trading that was formed in 1998.

According to Shin Min, they fell out in 2005, and Mr See Lam Huat set up his own shop called Singsung in a shophouse in Upper Weld Road in 2006. A year later, his younger brother also set up his own shop called L S Electrical Trading in the vicinity.

Mr See Lam Huat later sued his younger sibling for copyright breach, passing off goods and defamation, causing the younger brother to counter-sue for malicious falsehood and groundless threats of copyright breach action. The judge found that the younger Mr See had indeed defamed his older brother and ordered damages to be assessed, but also accepted the younger See's claims that his older brother had made some groundless threats of copyright breach.

grongloh@sph.com.sg