Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Tab 3 NG Kim Fong V Menang
Tab 3 NG Kim Fong V Menang
ANTARA
DAN
Antara
Dan
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JUDGMENT
Introduction
[2] To put it in context, the appellant contends that her career got
crushed as she was caught in the whirlpool of an interpersonal
dispute between the Deputy Managing Director (“ Dy
MD”)/Deputy Chief Executive Officer (“ Dy CEO”) of the
respondent, Mr. Toh May Fook (“Toh”) and the Managing
Director (“MD”/Chief Executive Officer (“ CEO”) of the
respondent, Dato’ Shun Leong Kwong (“ Dato’ Shun”).
[4] She held that position until 19 th July, 2016 when she “ceased” to
be an employee of the respondent.
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[7] The appellant had worked with the respondent for 27 years and 5
months when she gave the letter of retirement. The appellant
claims that she was forced out of employment as Dato’ Shun had
called her into his room and questioned her about a
memorandum which she had issued to the respondent’s Board of
Directors (“BOD”) and her “alignment” with Toh and had
wanted her to leave the respondent.
[8] The respondent does not dispute that there was a meeting in
Dato Shun’s room but maintains that the appellant “voluntarily”
opted for early retirement.
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Ng Kim Fong.
[10] The appellant testified that she used her own words when
drafting the letter of retirement. The respondent contends that
the appellant’s voluntariness in wanting to retire early can be
gleaned from the language employed in the letter of retirement.
[12] Further, based on the Minimum Retirement Age Act 2012, she
could have (if she wanted to) worked until her 60th birthday.
Obviously, if she retired at the age of 60, her retirement benefits
would have been much higher than if she had retired at the age
of 55 years.
[13] The appellant contends that at all material times she followe d
the instructions of Toh who was brought in as Dy MD/Dy CEO
of the respondent on 22 nd April, 2016. He was removed as Dy
MD and Dy CEO of the respondent on 18 th July, 2016.
According to the appellant, she was caught in the middle of a
dispute between Toh and Dato’ Shun.
[14] Since around 9 th May, 2016, the appellant was placed under
Toh’s team and she took instructions from him. The
respondent’s Company Secretary, the late Mr. Ng Ah Wah was
also placed under Toh. There were a few other staff who were
also in the team. They were all paid an additional allowance as
part of the team under Toh. Dato’ Shun was not at all happy
with the fact that Toh had formed his own team. He said Toh
went ahead and formed his own “team” without clearing with
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him.
[15] After Toh had been brought in and the team was formed, he
asked the appellant to provide information and documents
pertaining to some past land transactions. The land transaction
pertained to the sale of lands by the respondent’s wholly owned
subsidiary, Menang Development (M) Sdn Bhd (“ MDSB”) in
Seremban 3 to Selalu Manja Sdn Bhd.
[16] In this regard, Toh used MDSB to appoint a third party audit
firm, PKA Advisory Sdn Bhd (“ PKA”) to conduct a forensic
investigation over those land transactions. As instructed by Toh ,
the appellant disclosed the relevant information on the land
transactions to PKA.
[19] The appellant was in active communication with Toh and PKA
over the historical land transactions. On 29 th June, 2016, the
appellant issued an e-mail to Toh which reads :-
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MEMORANDUM
FROM TO
Ng Kim Fong Mr Toh May Fook
Senior Group Deput y Group Managing Director
Accountant
SUBJECT DATE
Queries On Land Sale Transact To 29 June 2016
Selalu Manja Sdn Bhd
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You can ask them and they should be able to verify and
confirm the same.
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Compulsor y
Acquisit ion
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RM15.21 psf.
Regards,
Ng Kim Fong
[20] There was yet another land matter which was potentially
problematic for the respondent and/or for Dato’ Shun
personally. It had to do with the sale of the lands in Klang
involving a company called Prosper Commodity Group Sdn Bhd
under a Consortium Agreement dated 26 th March, 2010. The
lands became the subject of land acquisition and issues arose in
relation to the distribution of the compensation monies and tax
implications relating thereto. There were meetings between
Dato’ Shun and Toh on this topic. The appellant was present at
the meetings. These issues were still raging and there was no
closure.
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MEMORANDUM
FROM TO
Ng Kim Fong Senior Group Accountant Dato’ Shun Leong Kwong (Group
Managing Director)
By e-mail / By Hand
CC
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SUBJECT DATE
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REGULATORY IMPLICATIONS
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Regards,
Ng Kim Fong
Senior Group Accountant
[23] On 19 th July, 2016, he called the appellant into his office and
questioned her about the impugned memo and about her
“alignment” with Toh and had wanted her to leave.
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[25] According to the appellant, Dato Shun wanted her out of the
respondent and that she was “forced” or “pressured” to put in
her letter of retirement. She then went to her workplace,
prepared and handed in the letter of retirement. On 11th August,
2016, she lodged a complaint with the office of the Director
General of Industrial Relations under Section 20 of the
Industrial Relations Act 1967 (Revised 1976) (“ IRA”), claiming
that she had been dismissed without just cause of excuse.
[26] On the other hand, the respondent claimed that whilst the
appellant was in employment and after she had left, she had
been wrongfully divulging various confidential and sensitive
information and documents to third parties. As far as the
respondent was concerned the appellant voluntarily retired w hen
confronted.
The suit
[27] The respondent alleged that the appellant had breached her
express or implied duties which she owed to the respondent. The
respondent’s pleaded case per the Amended Statement of Claim
is as follows:
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information.
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b. Loss of earnings;
[30] On 27 th March, 2019, after a full trial in the High Court, the
learned Judge (“the learned Judge”) allowed the respondent’s
claim in the main action and dismissed the counter -claim by the
appellant. He held that the appellant had “ voluntarily” retired
from employment and that by her actions, she was in breach of
her contract of employment. In his grounds of judgment, the
learned Judge refers to Toh as “TMF”.
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Counterclaim
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following reliefs:
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[35] Dato’ Shun formed the view that the appellant was “aligned” to
Toh and joined his “camp”. He said that Toh had an agenda to
get him out of the respondent. Dato’ Shun said that he had a
problem with Toh as he had a sinister agenda to oust him and
that the appellant was part of Toh’s agenda.
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[37] Turning now to the appellant’s job scope, it is clear that she
dealt with the financial affairs and overall accounting functions
of the respondent’s group of companies including its wholly
owned subsidiary, MDSB.
[38] The appellant also reported to the members of the BOD, the
audit committee, its external and internal auditors, and acted in
accordance with the instructions of the management team
namely the Chairman, Dato’ Abdul Mokhtar Ahmad (“ Dato’
Mokhtar”), Dato’ Shun and Toh.
[40] Throughout June and July 2016, Toh did the following: -
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[41] There was a stiff push-back from Dato’ Shun on the Out of
Company Approach as he refused to sign the memorandu m of
understanding which was meant to resolve the irregularities.
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[43] On the very next day on 19 th July, 2016, after lunch, Dato’ Shun
called the appellant into his room. His wife was present at the
meeting. The appellant claims that in that impromptu meeting,
both Dato’ Shun and his wife coerced the appellant into issuing
the letter of retirement.
[45] She was never allowed back into the office. On 20 th July, 2019,
the appellant delivered a letter (from Toh) to the respondent.
She said she was made to wait outside the accounts department
to collect her personal belongings.
[47] The appellant pointed to the fact that on 18 th July, 2016, the
respondent had also terminated Toh and re-designated him to a
non-executive position and also sought the late Ng Ah Wah’s
resignation as company secretary.
[48] After she ceased employment, the appellant raised the issues of
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[49] The appellant claimed that she never breached her employment
contract. She said that, as a public listed company, the
documents and information of the respondent are within the
public domain.
[51] They also gave the documents to PKF whom the respondent
engaged (through MDSB) to review the respondent’s land
transactions.
[52] There was never any conspiracy. Indeed, conspiracy was not
even pleaded. There was no evidence of such actions which had
been tendered by the respondent or their witnesses. The
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respondent also never filed any claim against Toh and they
never alleged how they were affected.
[54] The respondent’s other witnesses (including from PKF) did not
and could not identify a single piece of information as being
confidential and sensitive in nature and did not identify such
type of information which was wrongfully disclosed to PKF.
[56] In so far as the appellant was concerned, she was duty bound to
act on Toh’s instructions. And as per Toh’s instructions, the
appellant had to:-
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[59] Toh claimed that he raised matters which were well within his
scope of duties and powers. Thus, the appellant would have been
in breach of her duties had she disobeyed Toh and would have
exposed herself to the risk of being summarily dismissed.
[61] The appellant served the respondent all her adult life for more
than 27 years, and she acted faithfully and dutifully and never
committed any misconduct.
[62] According to the appellant, she was the victim of the tussle
between Dato’ Shun and Toh and that Dato’ Shun wanted to get
rid of Toh, along with the appellant and the late Ng Ah Wah.
Respondent’s Claim
[63] The respondent’s claim against the appellant inter alia is for the
following:-
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[66] Toh obtained information about the previous land deali ngs and
transactions of the respondent from the appellant. The appellant
also provided information to parties such as PKF. PKF was a
consultancy brought in by Toh.
[67] The appellant did not seek the permission of the respondent
before providing the information to Toh or PKF. The respondent
did not appoint PKF and no approval was given by the BOD of
the respondent for PKF’s appointment.
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[73] This information was further used by the appellant after she had
left the employment of the respondent. After leaving the
employment of the respondent, the appellant continued to access
the information technology system of the respondent.
[76] The respondent filed the suit as they were concerned that the
appellant may continue to use these documents to disrupt and
interfere with the business of the respondent. As such the
respondent filed the suit inter alia for the appellant to return all
documents and information belonging to the respondent.
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[79] Further, the appellant is in any event, not entitled for the
retirement benefits as only employees w ho have attained the age
of 55 at the time of the early retirement, are entitled for such
retirement benefits. The appellant did not attain the age of 55
when she opted for early retirement on 19 th July, 2016.
[81] The respondent contend that the learned Judge was correct in
taking the conduct of the appellant in issuing the memorandum
dated 29 th June, 2016 to Toh without informing the BOD of the
respondent and concluding that the appellant’s defence that she
was only carrying out the instructions of Toh, had no merits.
Jul 1 at 9:45 PM
Dear Mr Toh
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Regards,
Kim
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“Dear Mr Toh,
I know once you are clear on what you set out for, you are
determined to set it to the end. You are unstoppable. Just
like your ROXY days.
Regards
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Kim”
[85] Hence, it was argued that there was no basis in the appellant’s
contention that she was only carrying out the instructions of
Toh. Counsel said that the learned Judge also took into account
these e-mails in arriving at his conclusion that there is no basis
in the appellant’s defence.
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[93] In this regard, counsel for the respondent emphasized that the
appellant agreed that after the said meeting, she went back to
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her room, typed out the letter of retirement and then returned to
Dato’ Shun’s room and handed over the letter of retirement.
[94] The respondent contends that the appellant issued the letter of
retirement in an attempt to get retirement benefits. This is
corroborated by the fact that on 20 th July, 2016, the appellant iss ued
an e-mail to Toh where the appellant stated as follows: -
“Yes, I opt for early retirement and have yet to see the
computation of the calculation so I observe the right to review
that pending the early retirement package.”
[95] Next, the appellant’s own witness, SD-3 agreed that the
appellant informed her that the appellant had resigned.
ZAZILA Itu saja dia beritahu dia dah nak balik, dia
beritahu dia dah berhenti.
[96] It was argued for the respondent that the appellant is bound by
the evidence given by SD-3. In law a party to civil proceedings
is bound by the evidence of the witnesses he calls. (See:
Ratnavale v. Lourdenadin [1988] 2 MLJ 371 SC at page 380).
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[97] The respondent also relied upon the fact that the appellant
returned to the respondent’s office on 20 th July, 2016, which is
the very next day after the appellant was (allegedly) forced to
issue the letter of retirement. The appellant agreed that she went
to the accounts room without any problem on 20 th July, 2016.
The counterclaim
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counterclaim.
[103] The respondent further states that the appellant in any event is
not entitled for the retirement benefits as only employees who
attained the age of 55 at the time of the early retirement are
entitled for the retire ment benefits. The appellant did not attain
the age of 55 years when she opted for the early retirement on
19 th July, 2016.
Dear All..
Regards Kim
On Thursday, July 21, 2016 9:42 AM, kim kim wrote: Dear
Dato’ Lock, Kenny and Zu Wei
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Regards
Ng Kim Fong
Mr Colin Too
[Emphasis added]
[105] Next, she sent a letter on 29 th July, 2016 to the respondent and
to all the members of the BOD. There was no response by the
respondent. It reads as follows:-
29 July 2016
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Dear Sirs,
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wanted.
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Yours faithfully
Ng Kim Fong
[Emphasis added]
04 August 2016
By e-mail
Dear Sirs,
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Thank you.
Yours faithfully
Ng Kim Fong
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Ms Jasmine Lee
Ng Kim Fong
Attachments
• MCB-NgKimFong-BT.pdf (142.73KB)
• MCB-NgKimFong-SGA.pdf (767.42KB)”
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“Subject: so updates
Dear Mr Toh
Cashflow of Menang
You tell Klang Group have the safe guard their interest as
no Accountant any more in the Company to protect them.
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Menang Shares
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Court Order
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Hmm My Role..
Reason
Regards
Kim”
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Jul 23 at 12:51PM
Dear Mr Toh
For the latest Form 29, I will try to get Ta n to scan and ask
the auditor to use their PC to send out to me.. If not, then I
need to as BTilly manager to send me a copy. That is why
this will take time.
Regards
Kim
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Jul 23 at 7:35 PM
Dear Mr Toh
[111] The appellant maintained that the respondent did not show and
did not identify how and what information was confidential,
sensitive and had to be kept away from public domai n, which
should never be the case when it concerned the dealings of a
public listed company.
[112] At any rate, the appellant contended that she was justified in
making disclosure to the third parties such as Toh and as a
matter of public interest as she was highlighting irregularities
within the respondent.
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[116] Ultimately, after a full trial, the learned Judge said that the
appellant had not proven her case that she was forced to issue
the letter of retirement. The learned Judge said that she was not
truthful and based on her demeanour, she was obviously lying.
In this regard, he said that the appellant ‘later on became
defensive, to a certain extent evasive and could not stop
fidgeting when confronted with evidence not in her favour’ .
[117] The learned Judge concluded that the appellant was in breach of
her express and implied terms of her contract of employment
and found in favour of the respondent. He dismissed the
appellant’s counterclaim.
Our Decision
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[121] Consequently, the learned Judge found that the appellant had
breached clause 9(g) of the employment contract, finding that it
was obvious that the appellant wanted to cause damage to the
respondent’s reputation and standing to enable a corporate
takeover of the respondent by parties aligned to the appellant.
Clause 9(g) (sic) of the respondent’s Staff Employment Policy -
Terms of Service reads as:-
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[122] We are satisfied that the learned Judge erred in holding that the
appellant breached this term. At paragraph 9 of his judgment the
learned Judge held that the 3 documents and/o r information had
already been found to be confidential as stated in paragraph 6 of
his judgment.
[124] More materially, the evidence shows that the appellant did not
act on a frolic of her own as she had at all times acted under
instructions lawfully given by the then Dy MD/Dy C EO -Toh.
Thus she cannot be said to have been in breach of clause 9(g)
(sic).
[125] In fact, the appellant would have been in breach of her duties
had she disobeyed Toh and would have exposed herself to the
risk of being summarily dismissed. In this regard , Clause 9.2.1
(a) of the Staff Employment Policy -Terms of Service states:
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…”
[127] Further, we do not find evidence to suggest that she was in any
way acting in tandem with Toh to undermine the respondent or
to damage the respondent’s reputation in the manner as alleged.
[129] Of course, the appellant may well have been rather too
enthusiastic in her e-mails to Toh as regards Dato’ Shun’s
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[130] As for the contention that the appellant ought to have brought
her concerns to the BOD, whilst that may have been prudent on
hindsight, she had offered a reasonable explanation in that she
had reposed all activities to Toh who attended the BOD
meetings and whom she expected to have taken up either with
the BOD in general or Dato’ Shun in particular.
[132] The first point to note here is that the information and
documents must pass the test of having the quality or attributes
of confidence as may be recognised by law.
[134] Indeed, when queried on this point, counsel for the respondent
conceded (correctly in our view) that the information and
documents that are the subject of the respondent’s complaint
against the appellant do not fall within the traditional definition
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BREACH OF CONFIDENCE
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[137] The defence of public interest would involve, for example, the
disclosure of evidence concerning the commission of criminal
offences and other serious unlawful/antisocial conduct, e.g. tax
evasion. This was established in the Englis h case of Gartside v.
Outram [1856], 26 LJ Ch 113, where Woods VC stated that:
"There is no confidence as to the disclosure of an iniquity .”
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[140] Indeed, the appellant took the position that she had not divulged
anything that was confidential. Based on counsel’s concession
as stated earlier, the issue of breach of confidentiality does not
even arise.
[141] Even if it arises, based on the appellant’s stand that there were
“irregularities” in the land transactions, the disclosure was in
our view, protected by the principle as stated in Initial Services
Ltd v. Putterill. Further, as stated earlier, the appellant’s
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[142] At any rate, given that the respondent is a public listed entity,
any disclosure of the type that was communicated to the internal
and external auditors or as threatened by the appellant, to the
Securities Commission, cannot be thwarted or hindered by
injunctive orders of the type that were sought by the respondent.
[147] The learned Judge found her claim unproven, relying on SD3’s
evidence and the fact that she returned to her office the next
day, walking into her office without any problems clearly
dispelling the appellant’s version of what had truly happened.
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[148] In our view, the learned Judge should have (but did not)
critically examined Dato’ Shun’s evidence during cross-
examination to determine (as a matter of probability) what
really took place on that fateful day. It therefore falls on us to
undertake the evidential evaluation.
“…
SHUN With that question, the way you have done, yes.
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SYN You did not want her to issue the memo which
would call for answers which could not be put
up by the Board.
SHUN Disagree
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SYN Ok, so –
SHUN Yes.
SHUN No, no, no, no. I said you have point out this
and that. You are obviously taking a position of
somebody. Let’s clarify. You have been with
me for 27 years, why you are changing now?
That was my hope. When she asked for early
retirement, I was in fact surprised. I did not
expect her to leave.
…”
“…
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SHUN I already –
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SYN Alright.
SHUN And she just left and typed a letter and gave it
to me.
SHUN Disagree.
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…”
[152] In the result, we are satisfied that the audio -visual advantage
which the learned Judge had (and which we are deprived of)
appears to have been lost in the final assessment of the evidence
as a whole.
[154] The question to be asked is whether the fact that the appellant
went back to the office on 20 th July 2016, seemingly without any
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problem and the fact that she told SD3 that she had resigned
tells us anything about what actually transpired in Dato’ Shun’s
room on 19 th July 2016?
[155] In our view, the appellant’s conduct in going back to the office
the next day to deliver a letter from Toh and to collect her
things and/or that she told SD3 that she had resigned is neither
here nor there. It is in our view, neutral in terms of what had
transpired in Dato’ Shun’s room.
[156] The question which ought to have been at the forefront of the
learned Judge’s mind should have been -whether Dato’ Shun had
in his conversation with the appellant, unequivocally indicated
or intimated or implied that she should leave the respondent
immediately. To us, the answer is quite obvious. He just wanted
her out of the respondent as he felt that she was not loyal to him
and had instead, teamed up with Toh.
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[160] If there was no coercion that was exerted on the appellant, then
in the ordinary course of e vents, the respondent would have
promptly and firmly responded to state unequivocally that the
appellant had tendered her letter of retirement on her own
volition. The respondent just kept silent to a serious allegation
that was formally made by their own Ex-Senior Group
Accountant and did not respond to her e-mail.
[165] It was submitted for the respondent that as the Senior Group
Accountant of the respondent and its group of companies, the
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[166] In our view, the question still remains – were there irregularities
which warranted forensic investigations? It is immaterial in our
view that the appellant did or said nothing about these land
transactions in the past.
[167] If she was derelict in her duties as the Senior Group Accountant
by reason of her failure to raise issues at the material time, then
it was entirely open to the respondent to have taken action
against her. That is an entirely different matter altogether. The
question of alleged irregularities cannot and should not be
conflated with the appellant’s previous action, inaction or
acquiescence over these land transactions. In the upshot, the
appellant’s counterclaim was proved on a balance of
probabilities and ought to have been allowed.
Quantum of damages
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He may even get less than the wages for the period of
notice if it can be proved that he could obtain similar
job immediately or during the notice period with
some other employer.
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[169] Later in AETNA Universal Insurance Sdn Bhd v. Ooi Meng Sua
[2001] 3 MLJ 502 CA Gopal Sri Ram JCA (at 504) said:-
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[172] However, having considered the issue, and based on the peculiar
facts of the present appeal, we do not agree that section 20(4) of
the IRA bars the civil courts from granting the appellant relief
by way of payment of her contractual entitlement i.e. retirement
benefits which she was deprived of due to the “forced
retirement” in the circumstances as described in the earlier part
of our conclusions.
[173] Whilst we agree that the civil courts are not permitted to award
any form of monetary compensation for wrong dismissal ( apart
from the payment of wages in lieu of notice ), we do not think
that section 20 (4) of the IRA can be relied upon to deny the
appellant her retirement benefits, which she would have been
entitled to had she been allowed to work up her maximum
retirement age of 60 years.
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Outcome
Costs
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(S NANTHA BALAN)
Judge
Court of Appeal Malaysia
COUNSEL:
For the appellant -Ng Sai Yeng & Teoh Chye Yi; M/s Raja, Darryl & Loh
For the respondent -Sanjay Mohanasundram & K Gobinath; M/s Sanjay Mohan
Schmidt Scientific Sdn Bhd v. Ong Han Suan [1997] 5 MLJ 632 HC at page 644
Soh Chee Gee v. Syn Tai Hung Trading Sdn Bhd [2018] MLJU 1774; [2019] 2
MLJ 379 CA
BT Engineering Sdn Bhd v. Team United Resources Sdn Bhd & Anor [2012] 5
MLJ 720; [2012] MLJU 351; [2012] 5 CLJ 800; [2012] 2 AMCR 165 HC
Faccenda Chicken Ltd v. Fowler [1987] Ch. 117; [1986] 3 W.L.R. 288; [1986]
1 All E.R. 617 CA
Initial Services Ltd v. Putterill [1968] 1 QB 396; [1967] 3 All ER 145; [1967] 3
WLR 1032; 2 KIR 863, 111 Sol Jo 541 CA
Fung Keong Rubber Manufacturing (M) Sdn Bhd v. Lee Eng Kiat & Ors [1981]
1 MLJ 238 FC
83
[2020] 1 LNS 1263 Legal Network Series
AETNA Universal Insurance Sdn Bhd v. Ooi Meng Sua [2001] 3 MLJ 502 CA
84