This followed their failure to pay court-ordered costs totalling RM82,764 to lawyer S Paul Raj over a challenge to his RM45 million lawsuit alleging that eight doctors and three hospitals had misdiagnosed him with kidney cancer in 2014, and had urged him to immediately have his left kidney removed.
Raj later discovered he did not have cancer and went on to sue the three hospitals and the eight doctors for negligence.
However, one hospital and three specialists from the same hospital applied to strike out the case, arguing that the suit had been filed too late.
The High Court allowed their application but upon appeal by the lawyer, the Court of Appeal set aside that decision on Nov 27, 2023, and ordered the hearing to proceed. It also ordered each of the doctors to pay RM15,000 to Raj.
They then went to the Federal Court, only to have their appeal rejected on May 23. The apex court ordered them to pay an additional RM10,000 each to Raj.
When they did not settle the amount, Raj instituted a writ of seizure and sale, a legal mechanism allowing court officers to confiscate a debtor’s personal property if court-ordered payments are not made.
The bailiff, accompanied by Raj’s legal team, entered the clinics of two of the doctors this morning and issued a 14-day ultimatum for them to settle the amount.
However, the third specialist’s clinic was locked when the bailiff appeared, with a nurse telling the bailiff that the doctor was on leave.
Under the law, seizure does not immediately mean the removal of property but serves as a warning, with those served the writ being given a window to make payment before any assets are taken.
Counsel V Vimalan, representing Raj, said the defendants’ lawyers had then proposed that the total amount be reduced from RM82,764 (which included allocator, execution and other costs) to RM78,000 and his client agreed.
Vimalan said the doctors’ lawyers then remitted the full sum of RM78,000, and he submitted a discontinuance of the writ of seizure.
When contacted, the doctors’ lawyer Michele Khor said the writ of seizure and sale would be withdrawn.
Emotional suffering
Raj claims in his suit that the misdiagnosis caused him serious mental and emotional suffering, including stress, high blood pressure and constant anxiety, as he nearly lost a healthy kidney due to wrong medical advice.
The three hospitals – two of which are in Penang and one in Kuala Lumpur – and eight doctors have denied any wrongdoing and insisted that their diagnosis was accurate.
Vimalan said the hearing dates for the suit proper had yet to be set pending case management before High Court judge Kenneth St James next month. - FMT
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