1. ) RADIANT SPLENDOUR SDN BHD 2. ) RAJESH A/L JAIKISHAN v DR MOHAMMAD HANIS BIN OSMAN

Case Significance

Applies the Order 18 rule 19 striking-out power to a claim that is obviously unsustainable, offends issue estoppel, or fragments a dispute into a multiplicity of proceedings: emphasising the need for finality, the court struck out the writ and statement of claim as an abuse of process with costs to the defendant.

This High Court decision at Kuala Lumpur (Commercial Division), delivered by Judicial Commissioner Yusrin Faidz bin Yusoff, concerns an application to strike out a writ of summons and statement of claim under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012. The plaintiffs were Radiant Splendour Sdn Bhd and an individual second plaintiff; the defendant was an individual. The defendant applied to strike out the claim, contending that it disclosed no reasonable cause of action, was scandalous, frivolous or vexatious, and was otherwise an abuse of the process of the court, raising among other things whether the claim was obviously unsustainable, whether it re-litigated matters already determined so as to engage issue estoppel, and whether it amounted to an impermissible multiplicity of proceedings.

The court allowed the striking-out application. It applied the settled principles governing Order 18 rule 19: that the summary power to strike out is to be exercised only in plain and obvious cases, that a claim disclosing a reasonable cause of action or raising issues requiring serious consideration should be allowed to go to trial, but that a claim which is obviously unsustainable, or which seeks to relitigate what has already been decided, or which fragments a dispute into a multiplicity of proceedings, may be struck out as an abuse of process. Observing that the integrity of the judicial process demands finality and that a matter cannot be endlessly retried simply because one side is dissatisfied with the outcome, the court concluded that the plaintiffs' claim fell within the categories warranting striking out. It accordingly struck out the writ and statement of claim and ordered the plaintiffs to pay costs of RM10,000 to the defendant. The judgment is a useful application of the Order 18 rule 19 striking-out power to a claim barred by issue estoppel and offending the rule against a multiplicity of proceedings.