Judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain held that this was not a plain and obvious case to be struck out.

“The court is of the opinion that there are serious questions of law, issues to be tried (at a full trial),” she said.

The court ordered the government to pay RM5,000 in costs and set another case management for Dec 14.

After the decision, the family’s lawyer SN Nair told the court that today was coincidentally the anniversary of Smit’s death. Roz Mawar, however, reminded parties in the case “not to sensationalise” the late model’s death.

Smit, who was 18 at the time, was found dead on the sixth floor of CapSquare Residence on Dec 7, 2017, after falling from a unit on the 20th floor owned by American couple Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy.

An inquest was held in 2018 to determine the cause of death, and a coroner’s court returned a misadventure verdict.

Upon revision by the High Court, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled that Smit’s death was caused by “persons known or unknown”.

Her mother, Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen, filed the lawsuit in 2020, naming the government, the police, and investigating officer Faizal Abdullah as defendants.

She claimed that they had failed to determine the cause of Smit’s death.

Speaking to reporters after the decision, Nair said that the family recently received a letter from the police regarding Smit’s murder probe.

“The police only told us that the case is still ‘under investigation’. We want to know more, for instance, what is the progress and who have they interviewed,” he said.

Nair added that he will write to the new government regarding Smit’s case.