A total of 140 settlers sued two liquidators and a company over 4,700 acres of land.

Lawyer R Kengadharan, representing the settlers, clarified the appeal was about the High Court decision last month.

“Ten points of laws were posed,” the lawyer elaborated.

“Eight questions were in our favour. The remaining two were not with us.”

Kengadharan said he did not know whether the liquidators  K Jayapalasingam and Yong Yoon Shing and Thamarai Holdings Sdn Bhd, the company, would also be challenging the High Court ruling.

So far, he reiterated, he had yet to receive any such notification.

The settlers’ legal battle began in 2013 when they sued the two liquidators and the company, owned by the Lotus Group, over the land.

The land was leased in 1977 by the Negeri Sembilan State Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) to The Great Alonioners Trading Corporation Bhd (Gatco).

The land was reportedly converted by the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), which owns Gatco, into a land scheme for members.

The villagers paid RM7,600 each as deposit before working on the land.

According to the facts of the case, the scheme failed and Gatco was forced to take loans from two finance companies.

A third party served a winding-up petition on Gatco in 1996. It was wound up the same year.

Despite the company being wound up, the appointed liquidators sold the land in 2006. Thamarai bought the land.

The lawsuit by the settlers was struck out by the High Court. The Court of Appeal, in reversing the decision in 2014, ordered the lawsuit to be reinstated.

The High Court ruled in favour of the liquidators and the company.