RAINBOW WELLPACK SDN BHD v YONG SU LING

Case Significance

Illustrates the court's insistence on compliance with pre-trial directions on document bundles, refusing leave to file additional documents and recall a witness mid-trial where late filing would prejudice the opposing party, and dismissing the applications with costs.

This High Court decision at Klang concerns two interlocutory applications made during an ongoing trial — one to introduce additional bundles of documents and recall a witness, and one relating to the jurat of an affidavit — and the court's control over late compliance with pre-trial directions. The plaintiff company applied, by the first application under Order 34 rule 2(i) and Order 92 rule 4 of the Rules of Court 2012, for leave to file and use additional document bundles dated 18 and 21 October 2024 in the trial that was already under way, for those filings to be treated as regular and admitted, and for its witness to be recalled, with liberty to the defendant to cross-examine the recalled witness. By the second application, brought under Order 41 rule 4, the plaintiff raised a matter concerning the jurat of an affidavit — the jurat being the part of an affidavit that verifies that the deponent understands its contents. The Court's reasoning emphasised that directions for the filing of document bundles had been given by the trial judge personally, in the presence of the counsel conducting the trial, so that the parties were bound to comply with them. It held that a refusal to allow documents to be filed late — near or on the day of trial — is not designed to work unfairness on the applicant, but rather to do justice to the party who would be prejudiced by the other side's non-compliance with pre-trial directions. On that basis the Court declined to permit the late filing and the recall of the witness. It dismissed both applications, ordering costs of RM3,000 for each. The decision illustrates the court's insistence on adherence to pre-trial directions on documents, and its reluctance to permit late-filed bundles that would prejudice the opposing party mid-trial.