Manira binti Mohd Nor

On the judicial record

A High Court judge whose reported corpus centres on negligence, insolvency appeals and civil-procedure practice, tried substantially in Bahasa Malaysia.

Justice Manira binti Mohd Nor sits in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), and the reported decisions in this corpus are civil, with many written in Bahasa Malaysia and a strong emphasis on tort, insolvency and civil procedure. Negligence claims are prominent, particularly where infrastructure works cause damage: a claim arising from flooding attributed to a flood-mitigation construction project — kecuaian (negligence) in failing to take precautions against flash flooding — and a claim where power-cable installation by horizontal directional drilling damaged a gas pipe, the defendant having admitted a duty of care but allegedly failed to maintain the required clearance from approved drawings.

Insolvency work recurs through appeals by judgment debtors — penghutang penghakiman (judgment debtor) — against the refusal to set aside a bankruptcy notice and petition, several turning on whether the application to set aside was filed within the mandatory seven-day period. Civil-procedure practice is well represented: summary-judgment applications under Order 14 of the Rules of Court, where the question is whether the defence raises a triable issue; strike-out applications under Order 18 rule 19 applying the 'plain and obvious' and 'plainly and obviously unsustainable' tests; and questions about the proper mode of commencing an action and whether an originating summons should be converted to a writ where material facts are disputed.

Appeals from the subordinate courts also come before the court, including a road-accident quantum appeal decided by reference to the principle of appellate restraint, under which intervention is confined to a misdirection, a wrong principle or a wholly erroneous estimate. Land and statutory-authority questions appear too, including an appeal under section 418 of the National Land Code concerning a land administrator's decision on a breach of an express condition of title. Appeals from the subordinate courts also raise the scope of the court's power to receive fresh or additional evidence under Order 55 rule 7 and Order 38 rule 12 of the Rules of Court. The corpus reflects a High Court judge managing a broad civil and appellate list, deciding each matter by close reference to the governing rule of court or statute.