Tenaga Nasional Berhad v GOLDEN WOLF SDN. BHD

Case Significance

Illustrates proof of loss in an illegal-electricity-connection claim, including acceptance of the utility's calculation method where premises were empty yet drawing power, and the exclusion of an unverified letter as inadmissible documentary hearsay.

This High Court decision at Johor Bahru concerns a claim by the national electricity utility for the loss caused by an illegal connection of electricity, and the treatment of documentary hearsay in proving the claim. The plaintiff utility sued the defendant, the owner of two semi-detached factory units, claiming a sum in excess of RM1.13 million as the loss arising from an illegal electricity connection to the buildings. Both parties are companies and are named. When the utility's inspection team inspected the premises, the units were empty and unoccupied, yet electricity was flowing — a state of affairs the utility relied on to establish that power was being drawn through an unlawful connection.

A significant evidential question concerned a letter said to bear on the identity of the occupant or customer. The court held that, in the absence of the relevant witnesses — including the person to whom the letter was addressed and any legal representative able to verify it — the letter was documentary hearsay and its contents inadmissible as proof, applying the approach in Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Haji Abd Razak v PP. A document not verified by its author or a competent representative cannot be admitted under the relevant part of the bundle of documents to prove the truth of its contents.

On the merits, the court accepted the utility's methodology for calculating the loss. It took the date after delivery of vacant possession as the starting point for the calculation up to the date of inspection, since the finding that the premises were empty yet drawing electricity justified the figures; and, absent any counter-argument from the premises owner or the named customer as to the peak hours of usage to be applied, the utility was entitled to adopt its own basis of calculation. Finding the claim proved, the court allowed the claim for the total loss with interest as pleaded. The judgment is a useful illustration of proof of loss in an illegal-electricity-connection claim, and of the exclusion of unverified documents as documentary hearsay.