Court Maintains Suit Over Rm1 25b Solar Project

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Former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin failed to strike out a lawsuit linked to the controversial RM1.25 billion Sarawak solar hybrid project.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court today dismissed the striking-out application via a decision delivered by email to parties this morning.
There were no open-court proceedings for the matter today due to the recently announced movement control order (MCO) over Kuala Lumpur and several locations nationwide.
According to court documents sighted by the media today, judge Ahmad Bache also dismissed an application by business consultant Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah for summary judgment in the suit.
Under the law, a summary judgment is a ruling on a whole legal action without it going for a full trial.
Rayyan was seeking summary judgment in the suit against Saidi, while the latter had sought to strike out the whole legal action.
Rayyan and Saidi are prosecution witnesses who testified against Rosmah Mansor in her ongoing corruption trial linked to the project. Rosmah is the wife of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Following today’s decision, the court will later fix a date for case management of the matter in order to fix hearing dates for the legal action.
The court fixed today for a decision on both the striking out and summary judgment applications.
On July 13 last year, news portal The Edge Markets reported that Rayyan filed the lawsuit against Saidi over alleged non-payment of a service fee for purportedly helping Jepak Holdings secure the contract for the solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
The portal reported that Rayyan sought RM9 million, which was said to be the remainder of the RM10 million alleged service fee, an additional RM20 million in lost investment opportunities and business, general damages, interests, and cost.
It also reported that Saidi is seeking to strike out the whole legal action against him.
Meanwhile, according to court documents today, the court ruled that the striking-out bid was not allowed as there were issues raised by the suit that needs to be properly ventilated in a full trial of the matter.
Ahmad pointed out that among the issues requiring a full hearing was the alleged breach of contract between Rayyan and Saidi.
The judge said this was due to Saidi's contention that even if such a contract exists, the agreement would actually allegedly be between Rayyan and Jepak Holdings, and not with him (Saidi).
The judge also said the court dismissed the summary judgment bid due to the similar reason of there being triable issues in the matter.
He noted that because the claim amount sought was huge, and due to the circumstances surrounding the case, it is not safe for the court to summarily decide on the suit without a full trial.
Lawyers Ravee G Uthirapathy and Krishna Kumar represent Rayyan and Saidi respectively. - Mkini

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