PERBADANAN PENGURUSAN SRI WANGI v KAWALAN KESELAMATAN DAMAI SDN BHD

Case Significance

An interlocutory appeal against refusal to set aside a regular default judgment, dismissed on limited-intervention principles and the mandatory Order 42 rule 13 time limit.

This High Court decision is an interlocutory appeal concerning an attempt to set aside a judgment in default of appearance. The respondent, a management corporation, had obtained a default judgment against the appellant, a security services company, and the appellant applied for an extension of time and to set the judgment aside. The Sessions Court refused that application, and the appellant appealed.

The Court framed its task by reference to the limited scope of interlocutory appellate intervention: the High Court will not interfere with a discretionary interlocutory decision of the court below unless there has been a misdirection on principle or a manifest injustice, the standard reflected in authorities such as Hong Kwi Seong v Ganad Media Sdn Bhd. Two substantive questions followed. The first was whether the default judgment, entered under Order 13 rule 6 of the Rules of Court 2012, was a regular judgment — properly obtained — or had been entered mechanically without proper consideration; the Court was satisfied, having regard to the case-management history, the affidavits and the written submissions, that it was a regular judgment. The second was the mandatory time limit for a set-aside application under Order 42 rule 13, computed from the date of receipt of the judgment; an application made outside that mandatory period, without a proper basis for enlargement, cannot succeed.

Having reviewed the whole of the appeal record, the supplementary record and the parties' submissions, the Court found no misdirection or injustice in the decision below. It affirmed and wholly upheld the Sessions Court's decision and dismissed the appeal, with costs of RM3,000 payable by the appellant to the respondent. The judgment is a useful illustration of the narrow scope of interlocutory appeals, the distinction between a regular and a mechanically obtained default judgment, and the mandatory nature of the time limit for setting aside under Order 42 rule 13.