1. ) LIM SEH MOI 2. ) CHEE SIEW CHOO v MOHD KHAIRUDIN BIN HASSAN

Case Significance

Illustrates the use of the strike-out jurisdiction under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012 to prevent the relitigation of matters already decided between the same parties, giving effect to res judicata and the principle of finality in litigation.

This High Court decision at Johor Bahru concerns the striking out of a fresh originating summons as barred by res judicata and as an abuse of the process of the court. The plaintiffs had commenced new proceedings seeking relief in respect of the ownership of, and an injunction over, a piece of land — but the same issues, between the same parties, had already been determined in earlier proceedings. The defendant applied to strike out the summons under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012 on the grounds that it disclosed no reasonable cause of action, was frivolous or vexatious, prejudiced the defendant's rights, and was an abuse of process. The court examined whether the new action truly repeated matters already decided, and concluded that it did: the issues and the parties were the same as in the earlier proceedings, so that the fresh action was caught by the doctrine of res judicata and amounted to an abuse of the court's process. The court emphasised the principle of finality in litigation — that litigation must come to an end and cannot be revived again and again — and drew on established authority that the striking-out power is to be exercised in clear and obvious cases where the action is not viable, and that re-agitating the same issues in a second proceeding is an abuse. Exercising its power under Order 18 rule 19(1)(b) and (d), the court allowed the defendant's application and struck out the originating summons and its supporting affidavit, with costs of RM5,000. The court was unmoved by any suggestion that recasting the claim in a fresh summons could avoid the bar, holding that res judicata looks to the substance of what has already been decided rather than to the form in which a party chooses to renew it. The judgment illustrates the use of the strike-out jurisdiction to prevent the relitigation of matters already decided between the same parties over the same land.