The decision was delivered by a three-man panel of the appellate court, comprising Justices Rohana Yusuf, Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.
In a unanimous decision today, Rohana, who chaired the panel, said the court did not find any appealable error in the High Court judge’s grounds of judgment warranting the appellate court’s intervention.
“We agree with the High Court judge’s findings and affirm the same,” she said, in dismissing the appeal with costs of RM10,000 to be paid by D Heryati Abdul Rahim.
Heryati, 55, was appealing against the decision last April 26 of a High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissing her lawsuit against developer Lau Ban Tin and wife Mary Lee Siew Cheng for alleged breach of contract to get back the land, which she claimed was worth RM1 million.
The High Court judge, Hue Siew Keng, had ruled that Heryati’s lawsuit was filed out of time, which should have been filed within six years from the time the contract was allegedly breached in 2005, instead of filing it in 2015.
In her suit filed on Feb 5, 2015, Heryati alleged the couple’s failure to transfer ownership of 8ha of land in Jelebu to her, based on an agreement made on June 20, 2000.
She claimed that at the time, she was still the wife of the former deputy prime minister and co-owned shares with him in the company, Zamrudvest Sdn Bhd, which operated a franchise under “EON Dealers and Franchise”.
She said around the year 2000, she and Ghafar decided to sell the business to the couple for RM300,000.
Heryati alleged the transaction did not include sale of the land in Jelebu (owned by the company) and that ownership should have been transferred to her as soon as the individual grant was issued.
She contended that based on the official land office records, the land was transferred to Lau on Feb 19, 2004, and on April 16, 2013, to Tengku Ramli Tengku Mohd Kamil.
In their affidavit, dated April 20, 2015, the couple said Heryati had no legal right to initiate the claim as it was time barred.
Heryati was represented by lawyer Kevin Mahendran while lawyer Low Peck Lim appeared for the couple.