Appeals Court dismisses JJ's children's appeal over inclusion of Rantai Wawasan shares in his estate

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court's decision to grant a declaration to the mother of the late minister Tan Sri Jamaluddin Mohd Jarjis to include three million shares of Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd in the list of her son's estate.

The three-man bench of the appellate court comprising Justices Datuk Azizah Nawawi, Datuk P. Ravinthran and Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali also affirmed the decision of the High Court that disallowed Aminah Abdullah's application for a declaration that six million shares in Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and Ivory Insights Sdn Bhd were also part of her son's estate.

Justice Mohd Nazlan, who delivered the court's unanimous decision in online proceedings today, dismissed the appeal brought by Jamaluddin's children - Ikhwan Hafiz and Nur Anis - and the cross-appeal by Aminah.

The bench chaired by Justice Azizah ordered both parties to bear their own costs.

Aminah was appealing against the High Court's dismissal of her application to include the Alpine Motion and Ivory Insights shares as part of her son's estate while her grandchildren were appealing against the High Court's ruling to put in the Rantai Wawasan shares in the list of their father's estate.

Justice Mohd Nazlan who read his broad grounds said the Rantai Wawasan shares should be included in Jamaluddin's estate as the trust deed which was created in 2009 when Jamaluddin was alive was valid and that the trust deed created in 2015 by Jamaluddin's children after his (Jamaluddin's) demise, was null and void.

On the Alpine motion and Ivory insights shares, he said evidence showed those shares never belonged to Jamaluddin and that there was also no proof of payment made by him (Jamaluddin) for the shares.

On Jan 3, 2019, Aminah, 87, sued Nur Anis and Ikwan Hafiz, claiming that the duo, as joint administrators of their late father's estate, had failed to include three company shares as an inheritance in the list of assets in the letter of administration when Jamaluddin died in 2015 and that they had also failed to enter the shares as a liability since July 6, 2017.

Aminah is claiming the three million Rantai Wawasan shares worth RM1.44 billion, six million Alpine Motion shares worth RM233 million and two Ivory Insights shares worth RM80 million to be included in her son's estate.

In her statement of claim, Aminah claimed that her grandchildren failed to enter the shares of the three companies - Rantai Wawasan, Alpine Motion and Ivory Insight - as part of the deceased's estate with an intention to deny her rights and interests as a beneficiary.

Jamaluddin, better known as JJ, who was former Science, Technology and Innovation minister, was killed in a helicopter crash on April 4, 2015.

Lawyers Wan Zafran Pawancheek and Pawancheek Marican represented Aminah while a team of lawyers led by Saheran Suhendran appeared for Nur Anis and Ikhwan Hafiz.

-- BERNAMA