Tan Su Ning

On the court record

Engages defamation and its defences, the proof of loans under the Evidence Act 1950, and capital-markets litigation over corporate control involving the Securities Commission.

Tan Su Ning's appearances in this corpus engage defamation, the proof of a loan, and a shareholder-and-control dispute. In the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) she acted as counsel for the appellant in a defamation matter. The questions were whether an impugned paragraph in a published article referred to the plaintiff and whether the plaintiff had been defamed, where the article referred to a group of individuals rather than the plaintiff by name. The court addressed the concept of "particeps criminis", the sufficiency of evidence that the plaintiff's reputation had been adversely affected, the particulars of malice required under Order 78 rule 3(3) of the Rules of Court 2012, and the defences of justification and qualified privilege, including Lucas-Box justification and the Reynolds defence.

In the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) she acted as counsel for plaintiffs in a dispute over a friendly loan agreement. The case turned on the burden of proof and document authenticity under sections 91, 92 and 103 of the Evidence Act 1950, against a backdrop of allegations of signature forgery and a substantial cash withdrawal. The court weighed contemporaneous documentation, independent witness testimony, photographic evidence, metadata verification and messaging communications in assessing the credibility of the competing accounts of repayment.

She also appeared as counsel for a defendant in a matter concerning a claim for damages arising from the sale of shares and control of a public-listed company, in which an interim injunction had been sought and the Securities Commission of Malaysia appeared as amicus curiae in its statutory role of regulating and developing the capital market, engaging section 15 of the Securities Commission Malaysia Act 1993 and section 217 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007. Across these matters, Tan Su Ning's practice engages defamation and its defences, the proof of loans under the Evidence Act 1950, and capital-markets litigation over corporate control.