Rice cooker suit – Shahidan, two others ordered to be present in court

Former Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim and two Perlis Umno office-bearers have been directed to present themselves at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Aug 17 to answer a breach of contract suit involving an order by them for 60,000 rice cookers.

Failure to attend could see a judgment being entered against them.

Today's directive came from Judicial Commissioner Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh after lawyers representing Shahidan and two others informed the court that they were unable to get instructions from their clients.

They added they may discharge themselves if they fail to get any instructions from them by this week.

This led to Wan Ahmad Farid to order Shahidan along with Padang Besar MP Zahidi Zainul Abidin, who is also Perlis Umno secretary and Perlis Umno treasurer Rozabil Abdul Rahman to be present in court on Aug 17.

Lawyer Lavinia Kumaraendran appearing for the supplier of the rice cookers, Florence Lee Jye Wen, when contacted by Malaysiakini, confirmed what transpired in court today. The trial is proceeding later this month.

It was previously reported that Lee named Shahidan, along with Zahidi and Rozabil as defendants in her suit in which she claimed that Perlis Umno had allegedly ordered 60,000 1.8-litre rice cookers emblazoned with the Umno and BN logos and Shahidan's initials ‘DSSK’ three years ago.

In her statement of claim filed in April last year, Lee claimed a sales representative approached her saying Perlis Umno was interested in buying the rice cookers, for which she produced the said logo, measuring 2.5 inches by one inch, and showed to Shahidan's secretary in May 2015.

General damages sought

She said approval was obtained several days later in a June 3, 2015, official letter from Perlis Umno signed by its organising secretary, Kamarudin Abdul. The letter reportedly stated that Shahidan approved the purchase of 60,000 units, with 20,000 units each to be distributed in the constituencies of Arau and Kangar.

Considering that to be a confirmation letter, Lee processed the RM4.4 million purchase and proceeded to place an initial order for 10,000 rice cookers with all units ready to be delivered on the instructions of Perlis Umno by June 2015.

However, only 2,000 units were eventually ordered by Perlis Umno to be delivered between Oct 23, 2015, and Apr 6, 2016. In her suit, Lee claims that the remaining 8,000 units were neither collected nor paid for.

As a result, Lee is claiming a total of RM592,000 payment for the 8,000 rice cookers, special damages of RM36,511.40 for the cost of storing the units and continuing costs of RM2,750.35 to keep the units which cannot be sold off elsewhere due to their customised labels.

She is also seeking general damages for the order of the remaining 50,000 units, to be assessed by the court.

The defendants in their statement of defence denied entering into a contract to purchase the rice cookers nor issuing any official letter dated June 3.

They further claim that the plaintiff failed to acknowledge the order, hence no agreement existed between her and Perlis Umno.

They also claimed that the businesswoman failed to deliver the rice cookers ordered within the stipulated time. - Mkini