1. ) Lee Yee Wuen 2. ) Ladang Sri Harapan (Sabah) Sdn Bhd v Perfect Oil Resources (Sabah) Sdn Bhd

Case Significance

Confirms that although mens rea is not a formal ingredient of contempt, a committal for disobeying an injunction will not stand where the conduct is not a wilful or deliberate disregard of the order and the party had good reason for acting as it did.

This Court of Appeal decision at Kota Kinabalu concerns a finding of contempt of court for disobeying an interim injunction, and the standard of proof and conduct required before contempt can be established. The dispute arose from an interim injunction made in a civil suit at the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak at Sandakan concerning the use of an access road. The respondent company had obtained a committal order against the appellants — an individual and a plantation company — on the footing that they had disobeyed the injunction by not allowing it the use of the access road. The appellants appealed against being held in contempt.

The Court of Appeal examined the elements of contempt. It accepted that intention or mens rea is not, in general, an essential ingredient for finding a person guilty of contempt of court, but it held that whether the alleged contemnors had the necessary intention is to be determined from the whole of the circumstances, and that the conduct complained of must amount to a wilful or deliberate disobedience of the court's order. On the facts, the appellants had provided strong reasons for why they had not allowed the respondent the use of the access road, and, taken as a whole, their conduct fell far short of any wilful or deliberate disobedience of the interim injunction. The court concluded that the High Court judge had been plainly wrong in analysing the relevant elements.

The Court of Appeal set aside the High Court's committal order and allowed the appellants' appeal, with costs of RM20,000 here and below. The judgment illustrates that although mens rea is not a formal ingredient of contempt, a committal will not stand where the alleged breach is not a wilful or deliberate disregard of the order and the party had good reason for acting as it did.