1. ) SYNERGY PROMENADE SDN. BHD. 2. ) DATO' ABDUL RAHMAN BIN SOLTAN 3. ) DATO' NORAINI BINTI SOLTAN v 1. ) THE NEW STRAITS TIMES PRESS (MALAYSIA) BERHAD. 2. ) AHMAD SUHAEL ADNAN

Case Significance

A clear illustration of the threshold for striking out a defamation claim under Order 18 rule 19(1)(a) of the Rules of Court 2012 as disclosing no reasonable cause of action, confirming that this summary jurisdiction is confined to plain and obvious cases decided on the pleadings without evidence.

This High Court decision in Kuala Lumpur concerns the striking out of a defamation claim for disclosing no reasonable cause of action. The plaintiff, a company, together with related plaintiffs in a consolidated action, had sued a newspaper publisher and a journalist over the publication of an article, claiming to have been defamed. The defendants applied to strike out the claim under Order 18 rule 19(1)(a) of the Rules of Court 2012, which allows the court to strike out a pleading that discloses no reasonable cause of action, and under which no evidence is admissible — the question being tested on the pleading alone. The court restated the settled principle that this summary power is to be exercised only in a plain and obvious case, where the claim is obviously unsustainable on its face, and held that this was such a case. Examining the pleaded case against the publication complained of, the court concluded that it did not disclose a reasonable cause of action in defamation, so that it would serve no purpose to allow the matter to proceed to a trial that could only end one way. It also noted that Order 34 rule 1 empowers the court, on its own motion, to give such orders and directions as are most apt to secure the just, expeditious and economical disposal of proceedings, and that the interests of the parties and of the court alike were served by disposing of an unsustainable claim at an early stage rather than deferring the inevitable to a trial. In the result, the court struck out the plaintiffs' claim against the defendants. The judgment is a clear illustration of the threshold for striking out a defamation claim as disclosing no reasonable cause of action, and of the principle that the summary jurisdiction is confined to plain and obvious cases decided on the pleadings without evidence.