Ho Zhi Yee

On the court record

Ho Zhi Yee's reported practice combines land-acquisition compensation with commercial and company litigation, and it reaches the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court.

The land-acquisition strand is prominent. Acting for the appellant in a Federal Court matter concerning Sistem Lingkaran Lebuhraya Kajang Sdn Bhd, he was involved in questions arising from the compulsory acquisition of land: whether the State Authority had complied with Part Twelve of the National Land Code on the surrender of land, whether any non-compliance rendered the surrender invalid for the purpose of assessing compensation, and whether the complaint about formalising the surrender was a question of law or of fact carrying a right of appeal. That kind of dispute — where the amount of compensation depends on a technical land-law characterisation — is characteristic of this part of his work.

He also acts in heavy commercial litigation. He appeared for a plaintiff, Hadrons Consulting Sdn Bhd, in consolidated suits tried together that turned on the veracity of contractual payments under a written agreement; after a full trial the court entered judgment for that party in one suit while dismissing the related suit. In the same group of proceedings he also appeared for a defendant, illustrating a practice that works both sides of consolidated commercial disputes.

His company work includes a derivative action concerning Semenyih Jaya Sdn Bhd, where the issues were the alleged misappropriation of funds and breach of directors' fiduciary duties, the prescribed methods by which a shareholder may receive funds from a company, and whether the Duomatic principle — informal unanimous shareholder assent — could validate a director's conduct. He has also appeared in the Court of Appeal for a respondent on an application to adduce further evidence under the Court of Appeal Rules. The practice is land, contract and company litigation across the full court hierarchy.