PUTRAJAYA: The National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) and three others have won their appeal against the dismissal of its RM560 million suit against Public Bank for breach of statutory duties and confidentiality.
In delivering the Court of Appeal’s unanimous ruling, Justice S Nantha Balan said there was a serious misapprehension of evidence which warrants appellate intervention.
“The trial judge ignored vital evidence, in particular, the testimony of Veronica Foo before the domestic inquiry panel and the bank’s stance vis-à-vis the charge of serious misconduct against (former bank clerk) Johari Mohamed,” he said.
Foo was the bank’s head of investigation audit.
However, the bench which also comprised Justices Azizah Nawawi and P Ravinthran, only awarded the appellants RM10,000 as nominal damages.
The appellants, who were represented by Shafee Abdullah, were allowed costs of RM500,000.
On July 29, 2019, the High Court ruled that NFC, its chairman Salleh Ismail, and subsidiary companies – National Meat & Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd and Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd – had failed to prove their case against the bank on a balance of probabilities.
Salleh is the husband of former Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
Initiated in 2012, the suit alleged that the bank had breached confidentiality by allowing details of banking transactions to be revealed by the then PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.
They claimed their business reputation and credibility suffered irreparable loss and damage due to the various breaches of statutory duties owed by the bank pursuant to the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (Bafia).
They also claimed that their leaked bank account information was used by Rafizi on March 7, 2012, to bolster allegations that they had leveraged a government loan to buy eight KL Eco City properties.
They had sought RM560 million in damages from the bank. - FMT
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