Berjaya Land, project manager struck out from Anna Jenkins suit

 

Anna Jenkins disappeared in Penang while on holiday in 2017. Her remains were discovered three years later.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has struck out Berjaya Land Development Sdn Bhd and its project manager from a negligence suit brought by the son of the late Anna Jenkins, a Malaysia-born Adelaide resident who went missing in 2017.

Greg Jenkins filed the suit in Aug last year, naming the government, the police, Berjaya Land, its project manager Terrence Theseira, and  landscape worker Kew Kee Seng as defendants.

Ruling on an application by the company and Theseira for the suit against them to be struck out, judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain said Jenkins did not have the legal right to file the lawsuit without obtaining permission from her estate.

Roz said that as a matter of law the estate of a deceased individual must have appropriate legal representation. She said Jenkins, despite being the deceased’s biological son, was unable to show that he was its duly appointed legal representative.

The deceased’s remains were found in 2020 at a bungalow site belonging to Berjaya Land near the Turf Club in Penang.

Jenkins’ suit against the company, Theseira and Kew alleged they had concealed the discovery of the deceased’s remains.

He claimed that Kew, who found her remains and personal effects, initially reburied them elsewhere on Theseira’s instructions. Several weeks later, they found that the deceased’s remains had been tampered with.

Theseira is alleged to have then instructed Kew to bring the discovery to the attention of the police.

Berjaya Land later claimed that Kew was not an employee of the company.

Roz ruled that those facts were insufficient to establish a cause of action in negligence against the company and Theseira.

She said the Jenkins family should be grateful to Theseira for getting Kew to report the discovery of the deceased’s remains to the police.

Roz said Jenkins was unable to show that either the deceased’s estate or he personally had suffered any loss to mount a claim in damages against Berjaya Land and Theseira.

She ordered Jenkins to pay them RM20,000 in costs.

Lawyer Sankara Nair, who represented Jenkins, said his client intends to appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, the court also set March 8 for case management in Jenkins’ suit against the government,  the police and Kew.

Jenkins says the police were negligent in their handling of the case. He alleged that a death certificate had been issued without a proper search for her entire remains, without conducting a DNA test, and without determining the cause of death.

The police have denied wrongdoing, saying they registered the deceased’s death after finding some of her belongings at the development site.

The court set March 8 for case management.

Jenkins was also represented by Phoon Wei Ken and Sivagama Valli, while Ong Yu Shin and Hee Ying Peng appeared for Berjaya and Theseira. - FMT