AFFIN BANK BERHAD v 1. ) PCS VISION SDN. BHD. 2. ) PHENG CHIN SHIUN

Case Significance

Restates the Order 14 principles, holding that the burden to show a triable issue lies on the defendant and that bare allegations contradicted by contemporaneous documents such as certificates of indebtedness do not defeat summary judgment on a guaranteed banking facility.

This High Court decision at Kuala Lumpur, in the Commercial Division, concerns an application for summary judgment by a bank against a corporate borrower and its guarantor, and it restates the approach a court takes on an Order 14 application. The plaintiff bank sued the first defendant, its customer, and the second defendant, who was a shareholder, director, and guarantor of the loans, for the outstanding sums. At the hearing only the plaintiff's counsel filed written submissions; the defendants' counsel filed none to oppose the application.

The court set out the governing principles. On an Order 14 application the burden lies on the defendant to show a triable issue justifying leave to defend, and it is not enough for a defendant to make bare allegations or a mere general denial of the debt. The court must take a robust approach and examine carefully whether sufficient facts and particulars have been provided to disclose a genuine triable issue, and where an alleged triable issue is contradicted by or inconsistent with the contemporaneous documents, it will not amount to a triable issue at all.

Applying that approach, the court worked through the defendants' several asserted triable issues and rejected each. The complaint about the loan documents was answered by the principle that a party is bound by the agreements it has signed; the general denial of the debt and the assertion that the sum claimed was excessive could not stand against the Certificates of Indebtedness produced by the bank, which were evidence of the amount due; and the challenge to the interest was equally unsupported. Finding no triable issue, the court allowed summary judgment with costs. The judgment is a clear application of the Order 14 principles, in particular that bare allegations contradicted by contemporaneous documents such as certificates of indebtedness do not defeat summary judgment on a guaranteed banking facility.