Our Joshua Wu was a co-counsel in the Federal Court, representing a private limited company and its director, in opposing an application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.
The Federal Court panel hearing the application consisted of The Right Honourable Tun Tengku Maimun binti Tuan Mat CJ, YAA Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abang Iskandar bin Abang Hashim PCA, and YAA Dato Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah CJ (Malaya).
The Applicant’s proposed leave questions* were as follows:
(a) Whether the tort of abuse of process is a valid cause of action and is actionable in Malaysia;
(b) Whether the possibility of an aggrieved party commencing an action based on the tort of abuse of process would restrict or limit the remedies of an opposing party from applying for remedies available to them;
(c) Whether the award of costs by the Court when a legal process filed by an opposing party is dismissed, negates the right of an aggrieved party from commencing an action based on the tort of abuse of process; and
(d) Whether there is an obligation on the party receiving costs after a legal process is dismissed, to apply for punitive costs prior to commencing an action based on the tort of abuse of process.
*Our translation
We strongly opposed the leave application notwithstanding the non-existence of any Federal Court decision on the tort of abuse of process.
The Federal Court was of the view that the Applicant failed to cross the treshold of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, and dismissed the application for leave to appeal with costs of RM30,000.00 subject to allocatur.