The suit by Musa was “scandalous, frivolous and vexatious” and an abuse of the court process, Shafie said in a statement.
He is the second defendant named by Musa in his May 17 suit against Sabah Yang di-Pertua Juhar Mahiruddin.
Shafie’s application was filed on Monday through his lawyers Messrs Lind Willie Wong & Chin.
In his affidavit supporting his application to strike out the suit filed by Musa, the Parti Warisan Sabah president said it was indisputable that he was the rightful “chief minister of Sabah”.
He added his party and partners, PKR, DAP and Upko, had a clear majority of 35 assemblymen against Sabah Barisan Nasional and Sabah STAR’s 25 assemblymen in the 60-member state assembly.
Shafie said he was duly sworn in by the governor under Article 6(3) of the Sabah constitution that allows him to appoint the chief minister based on his judgement that such a person was likely to command the majority.
He said Juhar had also acted in accordance with Article 7 (1) of the state constitution as Musa, who was sworn in on May 10, had already lost his majority in the assembly.
Shafie contended that in line with the spirit of the article, Musa did not seek the dissolution of the legislative assembly to pave the way for a fresh election, and that Musa should have resigned with his Cabinet.
Shafie, in his application, said that the issue was based on the case of Nizar Jamaluddin (of PAS) against Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir (BN) in the Perak menteri besar case in which the courts ruled that Nizar had been deemed to have resigned and vacated his office of menteri besar even without submitting his resignation.
In his affidavit, the Warisan president also raised the question on whether the swearing-in of Musa on May 10 was done under duress in view of the police report made by Juhar against Musa for criminal intimidation.
Shafie also said that some of the Upko assemblymen had claimed that they were kept against their will at the CM’s official Seri Gaya residence and were allegedly forced to make media statements in support of Musa.
To date, Shafie has not been served with a summons by the plaintiff.