KETUA PENGARAH JABATAN KERJA RAYA MALAYSIA

On the court record

Illustrates how a government works authority is drawn into construction litigation as defendant or third party, with outcomes turning on undertakings as to damages, public-authority limitation and striking out.

Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Kerja Raya Malaysia (the Director General of the Public Works Department) appears in the reported judgments as a federal government office named as a party in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), typically as a defendant or third party in construction and infrastructure disputes and in the assessment of damages that follow interlocutory injunctions. Its presence reflects the department's role as the government's works authority in projects that give rise to litigation.

In one matter the office was a third party in proceedings concerning the assessment of damages on an undertaking as to damages, where an interlocutory injunction had been granted and later resolved by a consent order. The court considered whether the absence of an express judicial finding that the injunction was wrongly granted precluded enforcement of the undertaking, whether the undertaking survived the consent order, and whether entitlement to damages arose only upon the final disposal of the main suit — the plaintiffs' claim having been dismissed at trial, affirmed on appeal, and leave to appeal to the Federal Court refused. It also addressed an application to strike out the assessment proceedings, weighing the principles governing striking out.

In further matters the office was a defendant to applications to strike out claims. One concerned an application under Order 18 rule 19(1)(b) and (d) of the Rules of Court 2012, raising whether the plaintiffs had a cause of action and the applicability of the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948 with its time limitation. Another concerned an application to strike out a claim for direct payment said to be due under a letter of award. Across the decisions, the office illustrates how a government works authority is drawn into construction litigation as a defendant or third party, with the outcome frequently turning on the survival of undertakings as to damages, the limitation protection afforded to public authorities, and the threshold for striking out.