SYARIKAT PERUMAHAN NEGARA BERHAD

On the court record

A national housing-development company litigating agency, standing and late-delivery questions on housing sale and purchase agreements, and Industrial Court appeals over dismissal for negligent discharge of duties.

Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad is a national housing-development company, and it appears in the corpus in litigation over housing sale and purchase agreements and in employment-related appeals from the Industrial Court. It appears as defendant and appellant in the High Court.

The housing strand engages the familiar questions of agency, standing and delivery. In one matter the court considered a web of contract and agency issues — a power of attorney, nominee purchasers, beneficial ownership and a bare trustee, the locus standi to sue, specific performance and a letter of undertaking — turning on whether a principal was bound by the acts of its agent where the full purchase price had been paid, and the entitlement to interest for late delivery. In a Malay-language matter the company defended a claim on summary judgment under Order 14 of the Rules of Court 2012, the court restating the purpose and scope of Order 14, the legal threshold, and the defendant's burden to show a bona fide triable issue rather than a bare denial.

The employment strand concerns the dismissal of an employee for the negligent discharge of duties. In appeals from the Industrial Court, the questions were whether negligent conduct — a failure to comply with standard operating procedures — had been proven, whether the evidence at a domestic inquiry was relevant, and whether the dismissal was tainted by mala fides or victimisation, matters that turn on the Industrial Court's findings of fact. The company was also involved in a case-management dispute over whether the court could allow a claim because of a party's failure to comply with directions, including the filing of pre-trial documents by the deadline, under Order 34 rule 2 of the Rules of Court 2012. The company's footprint combines the contract and conveyancing disputes of a housing developer with the employment litigation of a large employer.