THE HAVEN Sdn Bhd

On the court record

A corporate party whose matters study the abuse-of-process control on re-amending pleadings to revive a disallowed case, and the limits on individual proprietors' standing under the Strata Management Act 2013.

THE HAVEN Sdn Bhd appears in the corpus in strata-governance and civil-procedure matters, and its appearances turn on the finality of court orders and the limits of individual proprietors' standing in strata disputes. In a High Court matter the court addressed an application to strike out a re-amended defence under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012, on the ground of abuse of process where the re-amended defence reintroduced matters previously disallowed, engaging the finality of orders, the effect of an appellate court's liberty to amend, judicial estoppel, the bar on collateral attacks on prior orders, and the inherent jurisdiction under Order 92 rule 4 to prevent abuse of process. That matter illustrates the court's insistence that a party cannot reintroduce, through amendment, a case already shut out.

In a related strata matter the court considered a claim by individual parcel proprietors alleging mismanagement, breach of fiduciary duty and the improper use of maintenance and sinking funds by a joint management body, and addressed the locus standi of individual proprietors given the primacy of collective governance under the Strata Management Act 2013 — holding that judicial intervention is limited to cases of illegality or mala fides, with appellate restraint. The company also appears as a respondent in an earlier matter connected to a consultancy.

For a reader, the cluster is a study of two disciplines: the abuse-of-process control on re-amending pleadings to revive a disallowed case, and the limits on individual proprietors' standing to sue where the Strata Management Act 2013 vests governance in the collective body. The company and corporate parties are named as they appear on the record; the individual proprietors and other natural persons are referred to by their procedural role only. The company's matters bring together two controls on the conduct of litigation: the abuse-of-process doctrine that prevents a party from reviving, through a re-amended pleading, a case already disallowed, and the limits the Strata Management Act 2013 places on individual proprietors' standing where governance is vested in the collective body, judicial intervention being reserved for illegality or mala fides.