Ariff Rozhan & Co.

On the court record

Ariff Rozhan & Co. is a Malaysian firm whose reported matters, argued in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) and the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), are weighted toward commercial contract, arbitration, civil procedure and land. In the contract field it has litigated a sale-of-goods dispute turning on a pay-when-paid clause, testing whether the payment obligation was contingent on prior payment by the Government, whether an unsigned conditional letter of appointment formed a binding agreement, and whether later purchase orders with express payment terms superseded any alleged contingency. Its arbitration practice includes an application to set aside a final arbitral award under section 37 of the Arbitration Act 2005 for breach of natural justice, and enforcement of a foreign arbitration award, where the court held that compliance with the mandatory requirements of section 38(2) of the Act was obligatory, the word shall being mandatory.

In civil procedure the firm has appeared in litigation over an unless order and whether the trial judge was bound by an unless order pronounced by an interlocutory-proceeding judge, given that non-compliance can result in the automatic striking out of a defence and counterclaim, akin to summary judgment or judgment in default. Its land work includes an application to terminate co-ownership and partition under section 145 of the National Land Code, with competing subdivision plans, and a saman pemula (originating summons) seeking to set aside a third-party charge and a public auction of the affected property. In a connected appeal the firm argued that non-compliance with an unless order resulted in the automatic striking out of a defence and counterclaim, and it has separately resisted a discovery application concerning documents said to relate to a fire at a party's premises, testing whether the threshold requirements for an order of discovery had been met. The reported profile is that of a commercial and civil-litigation practice with real depth in arbitration and contract, complemented by land and procedural work that reaches the appellate courts.