Author Archives: knowledgemanager

“Liable jointly and severally” – what is the implication?

If you have obtained a judgment in your favour against several judgment debtors but there is no mention in the judgment that they are liable jointly and severally for the judgment sum, what is your right against the debtors when it comes to enforcement of the judgment? This was the issue canvassed before the Federal Court in Lembaga Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja v Edwin Cassian Nagappan.

Covid Act: “Inability to Perform Contractual Obligation” tested in Courts

Part II of the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Act 2020 (“Covid Act”), which relieves contracting parties with inability to perform contractual obligations, has come into operation retrospectively on 18 March 2020 upon the enforcement of Covid Act on 23 October 2020. In June 2021, the former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) – Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Bin Hassan made another extension order to extend the operation period of Part II from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021.[2] Thus, for the time being, Part II protection is still available to eligible businesses at least until the end of this year.

Winding up petition based on adjudication decision under CIPAA – Court of Appeal reaffirms Likas Bay

Where a party has obtained an adjudication decision in its favour, that party may seek to bring a winding up petition premised on that adjudication decision. Darryl Goon J (as he then was) in ASM Development (KL) Sdn Bhd v Econpile (M) Sdn Bhd previously decided that an injunction may nevertheless be issued to restrain the presentation of such a petition. This has been discussed in an earlier article .

That article looked at two decisions of the High Court made subsequent to ASM, namely, Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd v Spring Energy Sdn Bhd and, RZH Setia Jaya Sdn Bhd v Sime Darby Energy Solutions Sdn Bhd. In the latter decision, the High Court adopted and agreed with the dictum of Darryl Goon J (as His Lordship then was) in ASM.

RZH Setia recently came up for appeal before the Court of Appeal, where the Court of Appeal considered the central question of whether the High Court had properly exercised its discretion in granting the Fortuna injunction sought by RZH Setia.