A three-member bench, chaired by Zainun Ali, instead ordered lawyer Michelle Lai to exhaust other avenues to communicate with 1MDB on her legal firm’s intention to discharge itself.
“You can put up an advertisement as substitute service. If you fail, then file an affidavit (to discharge),” Zainun said.
Lai, who is appearing for legal firm Messrs Tan Hock Chuan & Co, told the bench that the 1MDB management could not be contacted as the premises were closed.
“We could not communicate via fax,” she said.
Justice Aziah Ali, who was a member of the bench, told Lai that 1MDB must be informed first that its lawyers were discharging themselves.
The other member of the bench was Azahar Mohamed.
The court has fixed Aug 13 for case management to know if there is any progress.
The legal firm had appeared for 1MDB in a class action suit brought by 10 opposition youth leaders who sued former prime minister Najib Razak, the Malaysian government and 1MDB for paying US$1.2 billion (RM4.75 billion) to Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).
On Jan 9, High Court judge Hue Siew Kheng had dismissed applications by Najib, the government and 1MDB to annul the suit on the grounds that the youth leaders had the legal standing to bring the suit as the payment involved public funds.
The judge also held that the litigants had an arguable case and the matter must go for trial.
Hue said Najib, the government and 1MDB also failed to provide sufficient materials for the court’s consideration to annul the suit since then second finance minister Johari Abdul Ghani had said he was very confident state investor 1MDB would win the arbitration case with IPIC.
The youth leaders, who identified themselves as Gerakan Anakmuda Tolak Najib (Ganti), sought a court order that the settlement agreement on May 11, 2016, between IPIC and 1MDB at the London International Court of Arbitration be declared invalid.
On March 26, the Court of Appeal threw out the suit.
A three-man bench chaired by Ahmadi Asnawi said the respondents did not have a legal standing to file the suit against the three appellants.
“There is also no contract between the parties (youth leaders) and the appellant (Najib, government and 1MDB),” he said in allowing the appeal to strike out the suit filed in July.
Ahmadi said the youth leaders could not include the government as a party to the suit as it did not come within the ambit of the Government Proceedings Act.
The youths have filed an appeal in the Federal Court.