TANG BOON KOK v 1. ) H'ng Bok Chuan 2. ) H'ng Hup Choong

Case Significance

Addresses the limits of the Sessions Court’s inherent power to stay proceedings under Order 92 rule 4 and the competence required to bring a cross-appeal.

This High Court decision at Penang gives the reasons for allowing a plaintiff’s appeal from the Sessions Court in a breach-of-trust claim, and addresses a preliminary question about the right to appeal. The plaintiff, a shareholder of several companies, had sued the defendants for damages of RM183,334 for breach of trust, and a judgment in default had earlier been entered against the defendants for that sum. The default judgment had ordered the defendants jointly and severally to pay that sum, and the defendants responded with an application to set aside the default judgment and, separately, an application to stay execution and the proceedings, which the Sessions Court granted under its inherent jurisdiction. The plaintiff appealed to the High Court against the stay. Before turning to the merits, the Court addressed a preliminary legal question — later posed for the Court of Appeal — as to whether the decision was appealable at that stage, having regard to sections 3 and 67 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, relying on the Federal Court’s guidance in Asia Pacific Higher Learning Sdn Bhd. On the substance, the Court held that there was no proper basis for the Sessions Court to have exercised its discretion to grant a stay under its inherent jurisdiction in Order 92 rule 4 of the Rules of Court 2012. It also observed that, having allowed the plaintiff’s appeal, it was unnecessary to rule on the defendants’ purported cross-appeal, which had not been competently brought before the Court. Accordingly, per Azizan Md Arshad J, the appeal against the Sessions Court’s decision was allowed with costs in the cause, and the matter was to proceed before the Sessions Court. The judgment is a useful treatment of the limits of the inherent power to stay proceedings and of the competence requirements for bringing a cross-appeal.