Abdullah Az-Zubayr

On the court record

Abdullah Az-Zubayr's reported practice is in insolvency and commercial damages litigation, appearing in the High Court and the Court of Appeal and acting for applicants, appellants and respondents.

His insolvency work includes a winding-up matter concerning Batu Kemas Industri Sdn Bhd, in which he acted for an applicant on an interim stay of a winding-up order under section 492 of the Companies Act 2016. The application engaged the test for staying a winding-up, the rights of creditors and the opposition of financial creditors, and the role of the Official Receiver — the questions that decide whether a company that has been ordered to be wound up may nonetheless be given breathing space.

The same company features in a substantial body of damages-assessment work. In related Court of Appeal appeals concerning Batu Kemas Industri Sdn Bhd, the Government of Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional Berhad, in which he acted for a respondent and an appellant across the appeals, the court addressed the quantum of loss and damage arising from an incident that affected a manufacturing operation — the loss of goods in production and of profits, the loss of production, and the replacement cost and repair of physically damaged machinery and equipment. The appeals also engaged the discretion to award pre-judgment interest, whether it should run from the date of the incident or the date of filing, and the treatment of documents marked only for identification.

Taken together, the practice pairs the rescue-and-stay side of insolvency with the careful proof of loss that decides a damages claim, moving between first-instance applications and appellate argument on the same underlying dispute. It is commercial litigation in which the recurring questions are whether a company should be wound up or preserved, and how the loss flowing from a wrong is to be measured and compensated in money.