Omar Ismail Hazman & Co.

On the court record

Omar Ismail Hazman & Co. is a Malaysian firm whose reported matters before the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan) span property, contract, land acquisition and limitation. In the property field it has litigated a full-trial dispute in which a purchaser sought specific performance to compel a vendor to transfer property under a sale and purchase agreement, where the vendor sought to be absolved on the footing that he had not known what he was signing, raising the plea of non est factum and the effect of a signature on a binding contract. Its contract work includes the interpretation of a termination clause in an information-technology service-level agreement, and whether a provision for mutual termination by notice permitted a unilateral termination, with the relevance of section headings to the parties' intention in issue.

The firm's land and limitation practice is substantial. It has appeared in a land-reference matter under section 38(1) of the Land Acquisition Act 1960, engaging the right to property under Article 13 of the Federal Constitution, the burden on the applicant to establish its case and the recovery of incidental costs such as legal fees, and in a dispute over whether an action was time-barred under section 6 of the Limitation Act 1953 and whether it was founded on an illegal act, engaging the maxims ex dolo malo non oritur actio and ex turpi causa non oritur actio.

The reported profile is that of a property and commercial-litigation practice engaged with the enforcement and construction of contracts, the compensation payable on the compulsory acquisition of land, and the limitation and illegality defences that can defeat a claim, moving between the trial court and the apex court as the questions require and giving close attention to the documentary and statutory foundation of each dispute.