Malaysia Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Substance over form

Legal area

Court

7 May 2025

Lew Wan Nee Lim Ah Hock

Citation

KA-22NCvC-10-02/2020 (Mahkamah Tinggi)
Court

High Court
Case number

KA-22NCvC-10-02/2020 (Mahkamah Tinggi)

On the balance of probabilities the written PJB was a sham and in substance a loan secured by the property; because the defendant was an unlicensed moneylender under the Moneylenders Act 1951 the loan and related instruments (PJB and SKW) are unenforceable and void ab initio; therefore the court granted a declaration of invalidity, ordered removal of the defendant's caveat and return of the original title to the plaintiff, dismissed the plaintiff's claim for assessment of damages for breach of the PJB, and awarded costs of RM5,000 to the plaintiff.
20 Nov 2019

Yogananthy a/p A.S. Thambaiya Harta Pusaka Idris bin Osman

Citation

02(f)-25-04/2018(J) (Mahkamah Persekutuan)
Court

f
Case number

02(f)-25-04/2018(J) (Mahkamah Persekutuan)

The Federal Court affirmed the findings of the High Court and Court of Appeal that the tripartite agreement (which subsumed the 1987 statutory declaration) was a sham designed to conceal the real contracting party and to enable conflict‑of‑interest profiteering; the agreement was therefore void and unenforceable as being opposed to public policy under section 24(e) of the Contracts Act 1950, the appellant lacked a sustainable claim on the proven facts, and the courts below were not plainly wrong.