Mariana binti Haji Yahya

On the judicial record

Demonstrates the breadth of Court of Appeal review across arbitration, revenue judicial review, land and family law, including a Montreal Convention 1999 appeal arising from the loss of Flight MH17.

Mariana binti Haji Yahya sits in the Court of Appeal, and this collection captures the wide subject range that an intermediate appellate court reviews. Commercial and contractual appeals form a large part of the docket, including several concerning arbitration under the Arbitration Act 2005 — the extent of an arbitrator's authority under section 21(3)(b) to analyse the evidence without breaching natural justice, and the recognition and enforcement of an award. Revenue and tax appeals appear through judicial-review challenges touching the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976, where the court examined the threshold inquiry, exceptional circumstances and abuse of process before administrative relief could be entertained. The docket also takes in land appeals under the National Land Code, family and estate matters, and criminal appeals in drug cases. Among the more notable matters is an appeal arising from the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which raised questions under the Montreal Convention 1999 and the interaction of a stakeholder agreement, a release agreement and a distribution order in the administration of an estate. Another concerned an application under section 103E of the Legal Profession Act 1976 and whether particular conduct amounted to professional misconduct. Procedural applications recur — to recuse a High Court judge, for leave to intervene, and to expunge parts of a judgment — reflecting the appellate court's role in policing the conduct of proceedings below. Because the Court of Appeal sits in panels, these decisions reflect collective reasoning to which this judge contributed. Private individuals are referred to by role; corporate, governmental and institutional parties are named. The collection is valuable for showing how a single appellate judge engages across contract and arbitration, tax and judicial review, land, family and crime, and how the Court of Appeal tests whether the High Court applied the correct legal standard before intervening in a first-instance outcome.