UNITED HIGHLANDS Sdn Bhd

On the court record

A company embroiled in strata-management litigation over a utility-ordered demolition of security structures, testing Strata Management Tribunal review, the tort of deceit, and transfer-of-proceedings and solicitor-removal procedure.

United Highlands Sdn Bhd appears in the corpus in strata-management litigation and the procedural skirmishing around it, in a dispute connected to a strata scheme and its joint management body. It appears as applicant, respondent and plaintiff in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

The strata dimension is central. In one matter, a judicial review was brought against a decision of the Strata Management Tribunal, arising from a claim by the joint management body of a strata scheme against the developer for various orders following the demolition of a guardhouse and boom-gate. Those structures, situated within the vicinity of an electricity-utility transmission tower, were said to constitute a safety hazard, and the utility had ordered their demolition — a clash between the security infrastructure a strata community relies on and the safety requirements of electrical transmission. At the Court of Appeal the connected questions included locus standi, the tort of deceit, jurisdiction and injunctions within the strata-management framework, engaging the roles of the joint management body, the Commissioner of Buildings, the annual general meeting, the statutory duties of office bearers, and the effect of a tribunal award by operation of law.

The procedural strand reflects the tactical contest around the main dispute. The company was involved in an application to transfer proceedings under Order 57 of the Rules of Court 2012 and section 23 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, the court weighing forum non conveniens, the financial position and hardship of the defendant, and the ability to defend at the transferred court. In a Malay-language matter an application for the removal of the defendant's solicitors from acting was dismissed, the plaintiffs having failed to meet the threshold test. The company's footprint is a study in how a strata-management grievance — here entangled with a utility-ordered demolition — spreads into judicial review, tort and a series of procedural contests over forum and representation.