Catering company awarded RM1.2mil for breach of contract

 The High Court rules a director and a branding firm failed to perform the contracted work expeditiously.

The High Court held BBranding & Strategy Consultancy Sdn Bhd and its director Choo Chee Keong jointly and severally liable to pay Ijeon Foodservice (M) Sdn Bhd the judgment sum.

KUALA LUMPUR:

 The High Court has awarded a food catering company almost RM1.2 million in damages after a branding and marketing firm and its director failed to deliver the services they were engaged to provide.

Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong said director Choo Chee Keong had made various assurances and representations that induced Ijeon Foodservice (M) Sdn Bhd to hire him and his company, BBranding & Strategy Consultancy Sdn Bhd.

“The first defendant (BBranding) had issued invoices for substantive sums and received payment, but had failed to perform.

“The second defendant (Choo) had continued to give a false impression that he and his team and the company had the experience and capability to offer the services stated in the invoices,” he said.

Gan ordered BBranding to pay Ijeon RM607,650 for breach of contract, ruling that the expenditure incurred had been completely wasted. He also allowed a sum of RM162,697.45 in salary payments incurred and RM426,313.73 spent on food products and payments to third party contractors.

Gan held BBranding and Choo jointly and severally liable to pay the plaintiffs the judgment sum.

Ijeon was looking to expand its business into flash-frozen food products during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tan Ying Ying, Ijeon’s director, was introduced to Choo, who claimed to be a branding and marketing expert.

Ijeon agreed to engage Choo to carry out branding and marketing work for the new venture, to be launched before Chinese New Year in 2022.

Ijeon was issued invoices amounting to RM607,650, which it paid.

However, despite being repeatedly provided with information and documents to prepare for the launch, Choo and BBranding failed to take any steps to perform the work expeditiously, giving rise to the suit.

Ijeong was represented by Ahmad Shahrizal Abdul Aziz, Chong Lip Yi and Nathaniel Low.

Counsel Alvin Tan and Rosamirah Insyirah Zamri appeared for the defendants. - FMT