WEST COAST EXPRESSWAY Sdn Bhd

On the court record

Illustrates how the courts assess compensation for land taken for major infrastructure, mediate between the paying concessionaire and the affected landowner, and enforce the procedural framework of the Land Acquisition Act 1960.

West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd appears in this corpus as a highway concessionaire, and its reported matters are decided in the High Court and dominated by land-acquisition references under the Land Acquisition Act 1960. Where land is compulsorily acquired for the expressway, the company appears in the several capacities that the acquisition scheme creates: as the party bearing the compensation cost (the paymaster or concessionaire) seeking to reduce an award the Land Administrator has made in favour of a landowner; as an intervener or appellant in a landowner's reference objecting to the adequacy of an award; and as an applicant to set aside a High Court order made in the reference. Recurring questions include the assessment of market value on a partial acquisition (pengambilan tanah — land acquisition), the compensation payable to a building owner and for injurious affection to the remaining land, and compliance with the procedural requirements of the Act, including the effect of section 43 and the endorsement of the statutory acquisition notice (Borang K — Form K). Because the concessionaire's commercial interest lies in containing the compensation payable while the landowner seeks to maximise it, the decisions turn on the proper principles of valuation and on the procedural discipline the Act imposes on references. The matters are concentrated in the High Court sitting on land references. Collectively the decisions in which West Coast Expressway is a party illustrate how the courts assess compensation for land taken for major infrastructure, mediate between the paying concessionaire and the affected landowner, and enforce the procedural framework of the Land Acquisition Act 1960. The corpus also reflects the procedural contests that accompany a land reference, including applications to set aside an order said to have been made in breach of the Act and disputes over the endorsement of the acquisition notice and its effect on the affected parcel. Across these matters the concessionaire's litigation illustrates how the compensation cost of major road infrastructure is contested and finally fixed by the court.