Federal Court to hear Kepong MP's leave to appeal MCA suit

The Federal Court has set March 12 to hear Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng’s leave to appeal on whether a political party such as MCA has legal standing to file a defamation suit against him.

Counsel Guok Ngek Seong said today that the main issue over a political party's legal right to sue is at the heart of his client Lim’s (above) application for the leave to appeal.

Guok said that this leave application for the appeal has been fixed for hearing before the apex court on March 12.

On Feb 27, 2018, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed DAP lawmaker Lim’s application to strike out the RM100 million defamation suit against him by MCA over an allegation of abuse of public funds meant for Chinese vernacular schools.

Guok said Lim then filed an appeal against the High Court's dismissal of the striking-out bid, but that late last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal.

The lawyer said the Court of Appeal dismissed Lim’s appeal upon ruling that there were triable issues that needed to be ventilated at the High Court level.

'Court of Appeal did not answer the crux of the appeal'

Guok said Lim is going to the Federal Court because the Court of Appeal did not answer the crux of the appeal, which centred on whether a political party can file a defamation suit.

“The Question of Law proposed for the FC (Federal Court) is whether a political party can have the (legal) capacity to maintain a defamation action (against an individual) in light of the (United Kingdom court) decision of Goldsmith v Bhoyrul (1997) and the Indian (court) case of Rajagopal,” Guok said.

Guok was speaking after case management of MCA’s suit against Lim in the chambers of High Court judge Rozana Ali Yusof in Kuala Lumpur today.

The lawyer said that they had informed the High Court judge that Lim’s application for leave to appeal has been set for hearing before the Federal Court on March 12, and that former federal court judge and now practising lawyer Gopal Sri Ram would also act for Lim in the apex court matter.

“Hence the HC (High Court) fixed the case for CM (case management) on March 19,” Guok said.

The lawyer added that Justice Rozana also tentatively set the main suit for full hearing from Sept 21 to 24 this year.

“But if the FC (Federal Court) grants us (Lim) leave (to commence with the appeal to strike out MCA’s suit), then the HC (High Court) may have to postpone hearing dates (in September) if the appeal in the FC is after September, or if FC rules in YB’s (Lim’s) favour after hearing the appeal,” Guok explained.

In 2017, MCA, through its public officer and then party secretary-general Ong Ka Chuan, filed the defamation suit against then Segambut MP Lim in relation to the allegation. Later that same year, Lim filed the application to strike out the legal action. - Mkini