NFCorp and four others seek to amend lawsuit against bank
KUALA LUMPUR: National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail and four others want to amend again their lawsuit against Public Bank relating to alleged leaks in banking information.
His newly appointed solicitor Nooreha Idris told High Court judge Justice John Louis O’Hara that her clients wanted to include “special damages”.
She said this after asking for an adjournment of the trial on grounds that lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was abroad on an official matter as a government representative to the United Nations.
Nooreha said his clients were also amending their witness list to add seven more witnesses.
Apart from that, she said they want to add two more documents for the case – a recording of a press conference conducted by then PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli on May 14, 2012, and another domestic inquiry document.
Their other solicitor Zailan Mohamed also told the judge that those documents would be relevant and more witnesses needed to be subpoenaed.
However, Public Bank’s lead counsel Yoong Sin Min objected, saying that the applications were filed in “installation” when there was a change of lawyers in the case.
Justice O’Hara allowed adjournment of trial yesterday but awarded RM2,500 in costs to the bank.
He maintained the trial dates in March next year although the solicitor asked for an adjournment on grounds that the lead counsel would also be abroad during the period.
The plaintiffs who are seeking damages from the bank are NFCorp, its subsidiary company National Meat & Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd (parent company of NFCorp), Real Food Company Sdn Bhd (subsidiary of National Meat) and Dr Mohamad Salleh.
They filed the suit on May 22, 2012, saying that the reputation and credibility of their business had suffered irreparable loss and damage as a result of the security breach of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act by the bank.
In his evidence, Dr Mohamad Salleh maintained that his family was affected following Rafizi’s disclosure at a news conference on March 7, 2012, using bank information.
NFCorp said in its court papers that the security breach had allowed Rafizi to dramatise and “sow the seeds of distortions and misrepresentations” to defame and damage the reputation and credibility of the corporation, its related companies and its chairman.
It added that the bank was obliged to protect the information in law, in contract and in its fiduciary duty from being reproduced, divulged, published or disclosed to anyone.