Tun Ghaffar Baba's ex-wife gets leave to appeal

The Federal Court here today granted leave to the late Tun Ghaffar Baba's ex-wife to appeal against a decision by the Court of Appeal in a suit she filed against a married couple for breach of contract over a piece of land in Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan.

A panel of three judges, led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif , also allowed D Heryati Abdul Rahim, represented by lawyer Datuk Harpal Singh Grewal, to submit two questions on points of law in the appeal.

Sitting with Md Raus were Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop and Federal Court judge Tan Sri Abu Samah Nordin.

Heryati, 55, applied for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision, made on March 8, in dismissing her appeal against a High Court's decision which dismissed her lawsuit against the couple.

The Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal on grounds that there was no appealable error in the High Court judge's grounds of judgment warranting the appellate court's intervention.

On April 26 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed her lawsuit against the couple, developer Tan Sri Lau Ban Tin and wife, Puan Sri Mary Lee Siew Cheng, for alleged breach of contract over the land, which she claimed was worth RM1 million

The High Court judge, Datuk Hue Siew Keng, ruled that Heryati's lawsuit was filed out of time, as it should have been filed within six years from the time the contract was allegedly breached in 2005, instead of filing it in 2015.

In her suit filed on Feb 5, 2015, Heryati alleged that the couple failed to transfer ownership of the eight hectares of land in Jelebu to her, based on an agreement made on June 20, 2000.

She claimed that at the time, she was still the wife of the former deputy prime minister and co-owned shares with him in the company Zamrudvest Sdn Bhd, which operated a franchise under 'EON Dealers and Franchise'.

She claimed that around the year 2000, she and Ghafar decided to sell the business to the defendants at RM300,000.

Heryati claimed the transaction did not include sale of the land in Jelebu (owned by the company), and that ownership should have been transferred to her as soon as the individual grant was issued.

She said that based on official land office records, the land was transferred to Lau on Feb 19, 2004, and on April 16, 2013, to Tengku Ramli Tengku Mohd Kamil.

She demanded that Lau return ownership of the land, or alternatively pay her damages amounting to RM1 million.

In their affidavit-in-reply, dated April 20, 2015, the couple , represented by lawyer Law Peck Lim, said Heryati had no legal right to initiate the claim as it was time barred.

-- BERNAMA